Lovers Reunite
by Hector Flores
Summary: Kaguya and her husband separated by tragedy must work hard to eventually reuniting and regaining the peace and warmth that was cruelly stolen from them.
1. Chapter 1

This is a Naruto Fanfiction Only.

In the early days of my life, I had little to nothing to be happy about, the fact was that I had no choice, no freedom, not a single reason to wake up in the morning to say that I was going to have a wonderful day, you would think as a prince that would not be the case, that the supposed life of royalty was a life of luxury and happiness.

In those days I would tell you to stop smoking whatever grass you were smoking because it was making you crazy, my life was pretty much routine, and decided for me even before I was even born. One day I was so bored that I went outside and that is when I saw a shooting star, like an absolute teen I wished that I could find true love.

Wouldn't you know it? Sometimes wishes do come true after all. It turns out that the shooting star was no star at all, but a woman, a very beautiful woman with silver hair, nice body, and if I had to mention something strange about her was the fact she had an extra eye in the middle of her forehead.

I had to admit, that when I met her I was stunned, I was literately speechless as she walked near me, and I had to admit that even if the kiss she gave me was a bit unexpected, it was certainly not unwelcome.

I learned that her name was Kaguya Otsutsuki, I began to learn about her family, her life, and I fell in love, eventually, we got married, and I assumed the position of my father, the Emperor of a little territory, nothing much. The only thing that kept me happy was my marriage, the boredom of the throne would have been too much otherwise.

The fact is that I didn't even realize when a neighboring kingdom decided to try and invade mine, we had been friends for generations, and I even played with the current Emperor as kids, we were childhood friends, Kaguya didn't like the fact that my once childhood friend wanted me dead, and so she told me to accompany her to a very special tree.

In truth, I had thought she simply wanted me to take my mind off the fighting between my territory and the kingdom of my former best friend, but no, she took me to the single largest tree I ever was seen. With a single rock, she threw it at a piece of fruit hanging from one of its branches and it fell down.

She told me that with this fruit we would gain strength, enough strength to end the stupid war and be able to live together for much, much longer. I ate half and she ate the other, the second that I did, I felt something happen in my body, my eyes burned and hurt like someone was pulling them out, my body felt like it was on fire. My blood felt like it was boiling.

As I woke up, my head had been resting on her lap, she smiled at me. She told me that now we were ready to end this conflict once and for all. We actually did, we trapped the enemy in an eternal illusion, an illusion that would in theory grant whoever was trapped inside it, their most desired wish, their deepest desire, the thing they would not even tell someone.

Since my former friend was in that illusion, I basically became the Emperor of the world, like I needed that when my wife actually told me she was expecting, and I would soon become something much more challenging and something that made me that much happier, a father.

My kids were in truth one of my joys, Hagoromo and Hamura were my precious twin sons, and I could not be more proud of them as I saw them do the things they could do with the energy we obtained from that piece of fruit.

Our lives were happy and we saw our children grow into adults, but that is when something terrible happened, my sons began to fight with each other about who would succeed me, Hagoromo said that it should be him since he was the eldest, and Hamura was not having any of that.

I might have more experience using this strange energy my wife called Chakra, and my wife would never want to harm our sons, the second they learned that the energy was from a piece of fruit, something happened also that I wish that it never did, greed entered into the minds of my children.

In a last attempt to make sure my children did not do something regrettable, I went back to the tree and since I could control plants, I began talking with him, the second I turned around I saw my sons attacking their mother, demanding that they are shown where the tree was.

I screamed and told them that they should not harm their own mother, the second I did the tree and I became one, for it was the only way to protect it from the greedy ambitions of my own children.

Once again I felt like my body was being torn apart and sure enough, I grew to colossal size, I could feel ten tails on my rear, and I saw the form I had taken when I looked upon my wife. The battle between me and my sons was more horrible than anything I could imagine, it was more painful that anyone could ever feel, and to see that my own children would seal their mother in a giant ball of rock, forever to be floating above our world, was simply too much.

I fought against them, if I defeated them they would release their mother and see that their ambitions were harmful, or so I planned. Hagoromo did something I never expected of him, he took his own powers and cut me to pieces, nine pieces to be exact, to be cut apart by your eldest son was sadder than me or my wife could ever imagine.

As the seal was being complete, I saw my wife cry something akin to oil, and that is the last thing I saw. I would never imagine that the boys that we brought into this world would do this to us, their parents.

I slept for I don't know how long, or maybe this soul trapped in limbo, I couldn't know the difference, all that I know is that darkness, cold, and sadness were my constant reality. I don't know when it happened or even why, but I began to see this light and for some reason, I was being pushed towards it.

As I came to feel the air on my face, I felt a sharp cut on my body and someone held me upside down and smacked my rear really hard, I could not help but yell in pain, I looked at the man that hit me, he had deep blue eyes and blonde hair. He smiled at me, "Be most welcome to the world, Naruto Uzumaki, Kushina you should see our son, he is an angel."

He placed me in the arms of this red-haired woman, she looked like she was crying, "Yes, Minato this is our son, our precious baby boy, I wish I could be with him as he grows up, but I just know that it will not be the case, you must seal that beast in our son, it will be the only way for him to withstand Kyuubi, and I am sorry Minato I am simply too tired."

I saw the woman that was supposedly my mother close her eyes and breathed her last breath, I felt something being drawn on my body and knew it was the supposed seal, too bad for my supposed father, the creature they feared, the one they named the Kyuubi was not a foreign entity like they thought, it was a piece of me.

I guess I should really keep that a secret, I will need to live this new life as this Naruto Uzumaki, and maybe gather all the remaining pieces of my strength, of my being, when I am whole Kaguya, my love, we shall be together again, and this time nothing, no one will separate us again.

As an old man came to find me surrounded by the two dead bodies of my supposed parents, I heard him say that he was taking back his position as Hokage and that the first law he was going to make was that nobody, and I mean nobody may talk about what was sealed inside of me, or call me a demon, the punishment would be death.

As I grew up in the orphanage I used what little power I had to grow some food in the backyard, I had to since the people running the place would either feed me something that was poisoned, rotten or not feed me at all. I guess knowing the things I knew from my former life made me able to recognize poisons rather easily.

Every once in a while a couple would try to adopt me, and if they had been honest I could easily see myself living with them as their child, but in truth they all lied, they just wanted to take me out into the woods and abandon me, too bad for them the trees and plants apparently were still very much loyal to me.

I would simply walk to the orphanage and when the old man asked my where were my supposed adoptive parents? I told him that a bunch of beasts ate them while they took me to a picnic in the forest, I guess they wanted to celebrate my adoption.

After that the woman who managed the orphanage threw me into a garbage bin, and hoped that I would get sick enough to die, I was not the weakling these fools thought I was, I actually managed to regain one of the nine pieces of myself, and I had the memories of an entire lifetime as a warrior, monarch, and diplomat.

I could have tried to reason with her, but even I could tell she would look at me as a punk trying to put on airs at best, or a con artists at the worst, I got out of the bin and decided if they didn't want to provide me with food, I could make my own or hunt some of the animals that lived in the forest apparently one of my sons made.

The ground was fertile, and the shade of those trees, with that wind blowing through them was rather nice. I decided to go to the so-called Hokage monument, two of my descendants were on it after all. I needed to go there and try to figure out why they didn't look like anything even close to my lovely wife or myself.

It became a routine for me, once a year I would go and talk to the carved monument, especially the two who were people I recognized as my descendants, and every year there was a mob of idiots trying to kill me, trying being the keyword, I went through this for five years, and I had to say that after the third attempt I was getting sick and tired of dealing with the mob of pathetic fools.

I mean honestly if you are going to murder someone, plan out your ambush, study your target, make at least an effort, but that would be too much to ask of these fools, I mean they didn't even have the common sense that ants possess.

Every time they screamed that I should die, they called me a demon, actually that was the kindest thing they called me, I simply refuse to lower myself to their level and repeat it. I had long lost any mercy I once possessed, being apart from my true beloved caused my heart to become frozen, and my mercy simply dried up.

They attacked me and I would cause a tree to come right from under them, the branches grew so fast that they pierced the hearts of the fools that tried to ambush me, I simply walked away each time leaving a tree with a few dozen corpses hanging from the branches, like lanterns in a new year celebration actually.

I can actually imagine Kaguya telling me why to bother with the tree at all, I could flash incinerate the lot of them in less than a second. I had tried to make this a deterrent, but after three years I could clearly see that this was not working the way I wanted to.

As I got back to my dwelling, which was a rather nice cave at the base of the Hokage Mountain, I found that two people were waiting for me. One was a man I met briefly the day I was born and the other was a dog masked ANBU. "Honestly if I knew I would have visitors I could have picked some leaves to make some tea, I do have some snacks growing in the back of the cave."

The old man looked at me and laughed, "If only this was a simple visit Naruto, I need to talk to you about what you did three times now. I also need to know why you aren't in the orphanage or what do you plan to do in the future."

I looked at him and with a hand sign a couple of small trees came from the cave floor forming a couple of stools for them to sit, I had a nice rock formation for myself. "Those people broke the law, they called me demon, and such they deserve to die. If that is not good enough Lord Hokage, then I claim self-defense. The orphanage or should I say the owner of the orphanage threw me in the garbage bin behind that ramen stand in the middle of town when I was five."

"I went to tell you but that Secretary of yours would not let me in. I did think about going through an open window, but that would be simply rude, and there was no guarantee that you would even believe me. As to what I plan for the future isn't that what you are going to tell me Lord Hokage?"

He began to laugh as I looked at him, "It is true, that I would find it pretty hard to believe the owner of the orphanage would throw anyone away like that, she is my cousin after all, as for the Secretary she probably knows how much paperwork I have to finish, but you are right, I am here to tell you that you are of age to enter the Academy."

I began to scratch the back of my head and clean out my right ear with my right pinkie. "And why would I want to join the Academy? What possible benefit would I have to gain going there?"

The old man looked at me and began shaking his head, "For starters you would have a profession, when you graduate you would have a rather steady income, but to make it better for you, I will provide you with an apartment, a monthly amount for personal needs, and will talk with my secretary to allow you to enter whenever you want."

I was not buying this charade, a kid would be gushing with smiles and gratitude, but I was no kid, no matter how much old my body was, he still considers me the container of the nine tails, he has no clue that I had absorbed the so-called tailed beast and regain a portion of my power.

"Make it so that I have access to your private library and the ninja library, to add to that the apartment would be best if it was in the ANBU residential building, that would make it easier for them to keep an eye on me and would reduce the number of people I would have to end up killing. Do those things and you got yourself a deal."

The old man began to nod his head, "Most kids aren't as level headed as you are Naruto, alright I agree with those conditions but is that really all?"

Knowing that the supposed teachers in the Academy could be blind with hatred to treat me fairly I decided to look at the dog masked ANBU, "If for some reason the Academy decides to give me a failing grade, and I fail to become a ninja, I want the right to pack up my things and do whatever I wish with my life, my decision and you or anyone else can not interfere with what I decide."

The old man got off the stool and walked towards me with an open and after a handshake, we had an accord. Looks like I need to get ready for tomorrow since tomorrow is my first day at the Academy.


	2. Chapter 2

This is a Naruto Fanfiction Only.

The next morning I was not happy at all, I guess it would be too much to ask that people didn't stare at me like they seem to be doing, all my gear and clothes were stuff I either repaired or modified to fit me from stuff I took from either bandits or stuff people threw away. Thank goodness those bandits also stole hundred of rolls of cloth, leather and other things I would need.

The Hokage was honest when he said I would get a nice apartment, and it was rather nice, he did set up a monthly sum of money to my name, that is true, the part that he didn't mention that most of that money would be gone if I did something as to buy something as extravagant as an apple or a roll of toilet paper.

I was something that made me even angrier when I saw the price tag on the apple stand, and I walked over to where it was and brought this to the attention of the cashier. She didn't even blink when she said that price was for everyone else, and not for me, I had to pay a different price.

I looked at her and it took a great deal of control to walk out of there, which made every person in that grocery store to start cheering that I was not inside it anymore. I went to a nearby forest and using my Chakra I caused an apple tree to grow, honestly I had half a mind to take a bag of these much nicer apples, take them to the manager of that grocery store and telling him and the cashier that they could shove them where the sun don't shine, free of charge.

I walked to the Academy and the staff pretty much told me to get out, that a creature like me had no place in a place of learning, I ignored them both and walked down a corridor, I wrote the number of the classroom I was assigned the night before. I had two apples with me, wanted to make a good impression on my teachers.

As I reached the door I knocked on the door, nobody came, so I knocked on the door a little harder, again I was ignored, now I was angry, I began to bash my fist against the door and the door broke free from the door frame and came crashing down on the classroom floor.

The teacher had his hair in a ponytail, and had a scar on his face that ran across his face, right at the bridge of his nose, "Yes, can I help you, young man? As you can tell we are in the middle of class and do not have much time to spare.

I took out the letter written by the old man, and I was angry enough to make a ball with the letter as I wrapped it around the apple, and I threw it at him. He, of course, caught it like it was nothing major, opened the letter and began to eat the apple as he read the letter. The second he got to the part where he saw the signature he looked at me.

He told me to come stand near him, "I am sorry Naruto, I was not told I would have a new addition to my classroom. Class I have some news before we continue our lesson, the young man near me is our new classmate, his name is Naruto Uzumaki, please make him feel welcomed, as for what we have covered I am sure you will catch up in no time, or I could ask our class rep to help you to catch up."

At that point a pink haired girl stood up from her seat, "I would not give that thing a bucket of piss if he caught on fire, you either catch up on your own or fail, don't expect any favors from me."

I guess this would constitute the warm welcome I just heard about, it's not like I would ever depend on them in the first place, I waited till my teacher actually assigned me a seat, and wouldn't you know it, it looks like I was given a seat in the middle row of the class.

I didn't want to make a scene so I decided to walk towards the seat, but apparently someone tried to trip me up and cause me to fall, instead, I gave the idiot a sharp kick to the leg and walked over to my seat.

I sat down and began to listen to the lecture I had interrupted, if I had to describe the lecture in one word, that word would be boring. I am kidding, it was also inaccurate. I didn't want to disrespect my teacher so I kept quite about the glaring mistakes he made in his lecture. The history I knew better than he did, and the theory was nothing that you would call surprising.

Guess it really pays off to have spent the previous night reading up on things that have been either discovered or found since my last time living as the Emperor of my domain. I didn't like how my beloved was portrayed, however, and I felt a little pride in what my eldest was said to have done.

After the lectures, we were told that we would have practical lessons with another teacher. Iruka introduced his fellow teacher as Mizuki, and he would be the teacher in charge of teaching practical skills.

I threw him another apple and in contrast to Iruka, he glared at me and then at the apple, before he threw it back at me. I heard him say that he would not eat anything I could have easily poisoned or maybe he was saying that my touch was poisonous. I couldn't hear him very well since he whispered what he said.

I didn't care, I took out a kunai and began to eat the apple as he began his lecture on practical skills, he even showed up how to throw a weapon, everything from shuriken to kunai as a matter of fact. I found his lecture held quite a few hidden insults being thrown at me, I guess I know which portion of the class I will not do so well at.

The guy that sits right next to me in class was a guy wearing glasses and was not someone that you would accuse of being one that liked to chat, his name was Shino, or so the bugs that were in him told me, the guy seating behind me was a guy that was named Sasuke, and from the way people treated him he was the crown prince of this village, and he acted like he expected it.

The other guy that was seating right next to me, with what I call a pineapple looking haircut was if anything by my opinion on how he behaved a slacker. The seating arrangement did not change even in the open field where our practical lesson would happen.

I, of course, was singled out and asked to throw some kunai at the targets that Mizuki pointed at, he probably expected to humiliate me, and make it look like I was inept. I threw all the kunai he handed to me, in such a way that they hit the targets dead center.

The Targets were dummies and each dummy had circles carved on the surface, it was a circle that showed where the most vital points to hit on the human body, I, of course, knew this very well, I fought in a war after all, and killing an enemy was certainly not something I was unfamiliar with.

Mizuki called it beginner's luck. Told me to sit down and called another student, the next one after I was the pink haired woman that had been ever so kind to me before, she, of course, missed every single of her targets. I mean the woman who I came to know as Sakura missed the targets because her kunai didn't even reach the targets.

She did complain that throwing the kunai at a target at such distance was harming her fingernails. I wanted to tell her that this was a Ninja Academy, that if she was so concerned with her looks, that maybe she should enroll in a Modeling Academy instead, I didn't of course because that would be lowering myself to her level.

The woman who sits right next to Sakura was a girl that she clearly didn't like Sakura, even more than I did, as a matter of fact, Sakura tried to trip her and cause her to fall. Her name was Ino and unlike Sakura, she actually managed to hit three of the targets Mizuki was pointing at.

I don't know why I did it, one guess is that these two were so pathetic that I actually felt sorry for them, I walked over between the glaring match between Ino and Sakura, I looked at them both and they stopped glaring at each other and chose to focus their glares on me. "Girls it is all a matter of measuring where and how strong is the wind, and when you feel it's the right time, the time of least wind resistance, throw it while the side is flat, the throw is just a matter of putting enough strength on your wrist."

They actually managed to agree on something, I thought the world was going to explode when I saw that happen, they both agreed that I was full of it, and I should shove my useless and unwanted words straight up my rear end. Well, I was feeling much better after that exchange of grateful and caring words.

That pretty much told me any attempts to help those two was wasted, I decided that since they didn't particularity appreciate my advice, I would let them learn on their own, I was not going to make this mistake again in a hurry.

This was pretty much how it was in my practical lesson, I answered a question, I was ignored or insulted, I threw something I was told it was a miss, even if the weapon I threw was sticking right on the target, and my sparring matches felt more like I was spanking my ill-mannered child than actually feel like an actual fight.

Seeing that my chances to actually learn something was negligible at best, I decided from my first day in class, that the only actual alternative was for me to study at my own pace, not rely on my teachers, and I would simply use the time in class to do something I will need after all the learning I needed to do on my own, and that takes a nap.

The librarian pretty much told me that a thing like me should stay away from something as valuable as the books in the building, the second that she actually called me a demon when I didn't turn around and leave, that is when I took a kunai from my hip pouch and I slit her throat from ear to ear. I let the body hit the floor and left her to bleed to death. I simply didn't have the time nor wanted to waste any more time on stupid people that break the law.

This cause the people in the library to scream and take off running away from the building, like the building was on fire, actually that gave me a lot a privacy and since I was the only person there, I seemed to remember something called the Shadow Clone Jutsu, I used it and sent twelve of these Shadow Clones to pick up and read books in the library.

I had the foresight of actually telling the Clones to change form to look like an ordinary ninja. I was actually enjoying a great book about poisons when the old man decided to come down to the library. He carefully stepped over the dead body of the librarian. I heard him mutter something and I looked away from the book, to look at him.

"Naruto was it really necessary to kill this woman?" I began to shake my head at the sheer stupidity of that question. He wrote the law and even made it so that people that called me demon would be punished, a death penalty in fact, why is he so surprised that I actually upheld his law?

"She broke the law, and I punished her according to the law. Now if you will excuse me Lord Hokage I had a lousy day at the Academy, and I rather get some actual learning done before the day ends. This book about poisons and poison antidotes is fascinating. I really wish I could go to Suna and be able to talk with the author."

I figured that since he fought in the Second Ninja World War, he would not find my praise of a Suna Ninja, a master in the puppeteer division no less, very much to his liking. He actually sat down on an empty chair right next to me.

"I am sure Lady Chiyo will find your comments on her book to be quite flattering. Now that you said that mind telling me what happened in the Academy to make your current foul mood?" I looked at him and began to shake my head at him, I was not in a foul mood at all, bored to tears maybe but how is that me being in a foul mood?

"Let's see the staff pretty much told me to get lost, I had to knock down the door to my classroom for my teacher to even notice that I had been knocking on the door, my seat is right between a slacker, an emo, and a boy who spends more time reading about bugs than actually pay attention in class, to top it all my practical lesson was impractical and I was insulted by my fellow classmates throughout the lesson."

I looked at him and he was just nodding his head, "So you see I have absolutely no reason to have any negative reaction to the things that happen to me at all. I had a sunny day of friendships, kind words, considerate teachers, and to make matters even better a very nice and helpful librarian that was more than willing to help me. Now if you will excuse me I need to study some things that I will never actually manage to learn in that place."

Now he took the book from my hands and looked at me, "So that is what happened, look Naruto while you grow up, you have to learn to deal with people that you don't like or can't get along with, it's just a matter of life. You could have simply walked out of the library and come to my office, told me and I would have taken care of the situation, the only difference is that poor woman would still be alive."

I looked at him and began shaking my head, "If I did that, and not punish the person who broke the law, your law becomes more of a suggestion than an actual law. You want me to bring the person or people to you, it's simple, change the law and write that instead of saying and I quote, those that are found breaking this law are to be executed on the spot."

"I was only obeying the law Lord Hokage, I don't see where the problem is? Can I have the book back?" He just handed me the book and with a smile, he said if in fact, changed the law and said that I had to passionately kiss a person who called me a demon would I actually do it?

I had no recourse but to tell him yes I would, I would also need to find some strong mouthwash to get the disgusting taste out of my mouth. "You know Naruto the reason why we have actual teachers is that students don't know what they need to study, what exactly are you using as a guide in your studies?"

I looked at him and smiled as he handed me back the book I was reading. "I don't need a guide, I guess you could say I am a little more mature than most of my classmates. I know exactly what I need to know."

He began to laugh and continue to sit down right next to me and watched me read, book after book, he sometimes even took some of the books and asked my why I picked those books. I didn't think me going to the library would end up like this, a supervised reading session, supervised by the Hokage no less.

I honestly hope that he does not change the punishment to something like having me kiss the offender. As far as I remember, thanks to observing that so-called tailed beast, I regained some of my memories with my beloved wife, and I hope that never happens, Kaguya is the love of my life but that doesn't mean she doesn't get nasty when she thinks a woman is making romantic advances on me.


	3. Chapter 3

This is a Naruto Fanfiction Only.

I guess even with a lifetime of experience I can still be a little naive, I mean after the first year I was pretty much given the lowest grades possible, I actually answered the questions on the exam and made perfect scores in the practical exam, or as far I was aware I should be the top in my class, but no dead last.

The second year I thought that maybe the first was just a mistake, everyone can make mistakes after all, but no once again I was dead last, after that I began to see a pattern, it doesn't take long for you to realize that someone was either messing with my exams, or the grading was not as ethical as it should be.

At that point I no longer cared what the teachers said about our grades or the titles they would give, I took naps in class, did my bare minimum in practical skills, and spent all my energy reading and practicing out in the Forest of Death.

Honestly, the creatures in that forest treated me better than most humans in the village, I had friends who I could talk with, we shared jokes, and even helped a few of their mates have their children, which of course were adorable.

This went on until my last year, I knew that I would eventually plan to leave the village so I made an effort to keep my interactions with my fellow classmates civil but not what you would call sociable, I kept the interactions with my fellow classmates to a bare minimum, I knew that if I started to form friendships this would make leaving that much more difficult.

In truth it was not very hard to do actually, they avoided me like I was born with an incurable illness, and I have to admit that Sakura and Ino with their gossiping made the whole situation easier. I was not about to thank them, but they did help me even if they did not intend to help me.

I was expecting that on my last grade I would be given the title of dead last once again, I was secretly dreading the very idea, to think that I would have to be on a team with people I can barely stand, to serve and protect this place that made my life such a hell, I guess I should not be that negative, hell wouldn't be as bad as the village they called Konoha, I had another name for it, but I rather not say it.

You can't imagine my relief when they began to call the names of my classmates and each one of them walked over to the large table and picked up their leaf headband, everyone got a headband but me, it took some real discipline and control for me not to jump up from my seat in sheer joy.

I went to the front of the Academy and hanging from one of the large trees was a swing set. I decided that since I would never swing on that thing ever again I decided to sit on it, I began to think about what I would plan to do next. I knew that I needed to collect the other pieces of my soul, and maybe one day finally is reunited with me, beloved wife.

I looked up and saw the moon shine through the clear sky, 'One day we will be together again my love, and this time nobody will separate us again.' I heard a person walked near me and as he got near I looked at him, it was Mizuki, what could he possibly want with me?

"I am sorry Naruto, I know you always do your best in my lessons, you really wanted to graduate didn't you? I know that it must feel unfair, but you have to realize that if you don't have the skills to be a ninja, it would be sending you to your suicide if we let you graduate."

I looked at him, he must think I am an idiot for even trying to fool me with this fake show of sympathy. "You know Naruto if you actually do something that proves to everyone that you do have the skills, I can actually give you that headband and you can graduate. Ninjas sometimes must steal scrolls from enemy bases."

"All you have to do is go into the Hokage's office and without anyone noticing steal the large red scroll in the wall near his desk, you go to the old hunting cabin in the woods, you know the one, and I learn a single Jutsu from that scroll, I will meet you and you can show it to me. I will let you graduate if you can do that."

I began to nod my head, I got up and began to let the fool think he had succeeded in tricking me, one of the things I gained from absorbing the nine tails was the memories he possessed, and one of the memories pretty much told me I was not stealing anything at all, the Forbidden Scroll as they call it was initially property of the Uzumaki Clan, in fact, most of the things in it were things the Uzumaki Clan developed.

I decided to leave a note for the old man, I wrote that I was finally sick and tired of his village's constant mistreatment, discrimination, and vandalizing my home, I mean writing hate messages in manure became the norm, and I got tired of using a water and wind Jutsu to clean my walls.

I wrote that I was taking my clan's property and since I was not a ninja of his village, he could not even put me in the bingo book. I wrote my fond farewells for him, Iruka, and the two people that were nice to me, the people that owned the only place I could buy food in, Ichiraku Ramen was called.

I went through the village and sure enough, the Hokage didn't like the sound of things, he sent every Jounin and Chuunin available after me. I don't care how many fools he sent after me, if he thought that these people were going to catch me, I would say his age was definitely starting to show.

As I reached the cabin Mizuki was already waiting for me, "I can't believe how stupid you can be! You actually believed that stuff about me letting you graduate? I mean come on, nobody in the village wants you to be anything other than a corpse. I am going to tell you why that is before I kill you and take that scroll for myself."

He began to reach for the Fuuma Shuriken that he had strapped on his back. "Iruka probably told you that the Fourth Hokage actually killed the nine tails, but that is a lie, the nine tails is a being of pure chakra, and thus can not be killed, he was sealed inside a newborn, you Naruto. You are the nine tails the one that killed so many of our village when you attacked my village demon, the one that killed my parents and made me and Iruka orphans!"

I looked at him as the nothing he really was, "You call that news, well since we are being honest here Mizuki, I didn't buy your little lie at all, I am simply reclaiming Uzumaki property, and you think I was sad that I didn't graduate? You are an even bigger fool than I thought. I was absolutely overjoyed that I didn't graduate, I mean Mizuki it took you six years to finally fail me? Can you imagine what life would be if I had graduated?"

He stopped reaching for the Fuuma Shuriken as I said that, so I decided to continue, good thing I had a few dozen Shadow Clones hiding around us, "If I had graduated I would be placed on a Genin team, and I would have to spend the rest of my life protecting Konoha. Can you imagine how miserable my life would be, me having to defend that shit hole for the rest of my days?"

"You have any idea how much it took to keep from jumping out of my seat in sheer joy after Iruka told me I failed? Had you told me that and I could show how I really felt, I would hug you, that is how happy I was. I am not a ninja so they can't place me in the Bingo Book, or send Hunter Ninja after me. You fail me, you think you actually harmed me?"

I could not keep it in any longer, I began laughing like an absolute maniac, I was just so happy that I could not contain it anymore, "YOU THINK I WOULD WANT TO SPEND MY LIFE DEFENDING THAT DUMP? I CAN'T THANK YOU ENOUGH MIZUKI, YOU FAILING ME SET ME FREE, I AM FREE AT LONG LAST."

Mizuki looked at me and began laughing too, "Well if you fill that grateful demon, why don't you just give me the Forbidden Scroll as a thank you present?" I guess this idiot will never realize that I am not the little punk he thinks I am if he honestly thinks I am handing him over this scroll he is beyond delusional, he is crazy."

I looked at him with a sneer and I activated my eyes, which pretty much told all the Shadow Clones around us to get ready to strike. "This is Uzumaki property you fool, you think I will let you have it? I was not willing to let that dump you used to call a village keep it. Do you want it? You are going to have to take from my cold dead fingers!"

He jumped and threw the Fuuma Shuriken I caught it like it was next to nothing, and let's face it, to me it took next to nothing to do something this simple, I faced far worse than this. I began to twirl the large Shuriken in my hand and smiled at him. "You are going to have to do better than that Mizuki."

He began screaming that I was a useless punk, that I would never be able to defeat him, "You are a punk, not even a Genin, I am a Chuunin! It would take an army for you to defeat a ninja of my caliber."

I took the Fuuma Shuriken and placed it inside a seal I had carved on my belt. "Funny you should say that, you want an army, Guys one roasted idiot if you please, and make sure you leave a copy of the scroll after you get done with him." All the shadow clones came out of hiding and began throwing wind and fire Jutsu at him.

The area where Mizuki was standing became a flash furnace, the heat was so severe that trees began to burn till there was nothing but ashes, and Mizuki's remains blew away in the wind. The only thing left was his headband. They placed a large scroll-like the Forbidden Scroll and I began to leave the area.

Did Orochimaru really think I was that gullible? As soon as I was a few hundred feet away from the place my Shadow Clones placed the scroll a large explosion was heard. That Orochimaru must think I didn't notice him hiding in that tree, I was friends with the Serpent Clan, the clan he signed their summoning contract.

Some of them told me about Orochimaru's desire to possess this scroll. In reality, that dump should be grateful that I took the scroll, Orochimaru more than likely would continue to try and take the scroll and end up killing their precious Hokage. I once again was expecting too much from that village.

My plan was simple, I would go away from Konoha and go to the place I knew two more of the pieces of my soul was, Iwa had two so called tailed beasts, I was finally free to begin my hunt to reclaim the pieces of my soul, and nothing was going to stop me, I was going to be together with my beloved, no matter the risk, no matter the difficulties ahead.

The trip to Iwa was productive as I kept killing one bandit group after another, I even managed to repair some of my clothes and gear with the stuff the bandits had. My clothes had changed enough that the people of the village would never even be able to tell it was me anymore.

My black clothes were switched for leather the color of dried blood, my top consisted of a hooded jacket with black streaks, and on my face was a dark red mask that his my face, to the point that they could not see my face at all.

As I kept going towards Iwa, I kept hearing that bandit groups began talking about me, they made me sound like some unnatural monster that loved to prey on them, to devour human flesh, and even their souls.

If the bandits began to spread rumors about me must mean they were actually pretty scared of me, and fear was always a good tool to use when an enemy was afraid they make mistakes, and when they make that kind of mistakes it became easy for me to finish them off.

I looked at the gates and decided to knock on the massive gates, nobody came, I shouted a few times and again nobody came, I did that for a few minutes and basically got tired of walking outside the gates, if they wanted to kill me they were doing a lousy job at it, I decided to simply use an Earth Jutsu and went down the ground and began to travel through the bedrock, the only thing I had was this massive chakra signature that seemed to be floating inside a room.

I came out of the ground and began to walk up the wall that was hidden by the shadow the buildings made as the sun began to set. I made it up to the window of the room I was sensing the chakra and without any time to waste I substituted myself with a piece of paper that looked like an empty lunch box.

I turned around to find the leering eyes of Onoki, the Tsuchikage, looking at me with a great deal of both surprise and anger. "So what exactly did you want coming in here? Try and kill me? You know I may be old, but I have not been a Kage all this time simply because there was no one else to take this hat. I am more than capable of taking care of a punk like you, so tell me what you came here to do and maybe, just maybe you will get to live."

I asked if I could sit down first, he did tell me that it would make little to no difference so he allowed me to sit down, "Thank you very much Tsuchikage, I had a long trip getting to your village only to have your village gate guards ignore me, my feet were aching and I thank you for letting me sit down."

He floated down to his seat and began laughing as he finished hearing what I said, "So you mean to tell me you knocked, and tried to enter the village like a civilized person, and when you got tired of being ignored you came like this? You didn't come to kill me? Since you know who I am, and wanted to get in this village this badly mind telling me what you wanted in my village?"

I looked at him and smiled, "Actually I came to meet you, you see I finally got out of that prison, I prefer to call it a shit hole, that most people call Konoha, I was pretty much hated in that dump, and even though I have the skills to be a ninja they flat out flunked me out of the academy."

"I need a place to live, a place to earn a living, and much nicer surroundings figured that since this village pretty much feel the same thing I feel about Konoha, we could become fast friends, even welcome me with open arms."

He began to laugh and agreed with my description of Konoha he floated near me, and over his own desk. "So you hate that place too mind telling me why would I welcome you with open arms? What exactly makes you so special?"

I looked at him and smiled, "I am the son of your most hated enemy, the Fourth Hokage, the Yellow Flash of Konoha, and the most deadly ANBU in that dump, The Red Habanero, The Red Fox ANBU. I thought that you might want a person who was a Seal Master and could do the Flight of the Thunder God."

He threw a kunai at me trying to kill me, I threw one myself and block his kunai, "And why shouldn't I kill you?" I couldn't help but to laugh I told him because we feel the same about Konoha, we both hated the place.


	4. Chapter 4

This is a Naruto Fanfiction Only.

I heard Onoki laughing and looked at him, I tried my best to look as serious as I could, "Give me a break, why would the son of the Fourth Hokage hate the village his own father died defending? You mother was the single most loyal ANBU they ever had. You want me to believe you? You are going to have to explain that!"

I couldn't help but shake my head, "You keep calling that place a village, to me it was the worst prison I ever heard off. I was placed in an orphanage where the people in charge wanted to kill me, I had to fight and kill mobs of people that tried to murder me, the stores charged me ten to twenty times the normal price, well all except one, I passed the exams and yet they have the nerve to mess with my answers and tell me I am the dumbest one in the class."

I looked at him as he sat down on his desk, "To me that place was filled with people that either wanted me to kill me or starve me to death. What does it say to you that the beast in a forest near that place practically is the only ones that were friendly with me? I hunted and gathered my gear, my food, and slept in a dump worse than the cheapest whorehouse. Now you tell me if you lived like I did would you be loyal to that place or hate it?"

From the look he was giving me, I could tell Onoki finally understood why I wanted to join his village. "Alright kid, I got it. Yes, if my village treated me like that I would hate them. So tell me if you had to fight and kill ninja from that village how would you handle that?"

I honestly thought the question was kind of stupid, "I would use either my skills, my weapons, poison or explosives. You think I would be merciful to that bunch? Give me a break, I probably would use the Flight of the thunder god, and kill a battalion of them and treat them like they treated me, like garbage."

Onoki began to nod his head, "Actually that would also make me quite happy too. To see you use the skill that causes my village so many died during the last war, against the village who used it against us that would be quite the sight indeed. You are going to have to take a test to find out what rank I should give you."

He looked at me and began shaking his head for a little bit, "And because you come from that dump, your test will have to be harder than anyone else, you will fight in a two versus one fight, you against both of my villages toughest fighters, the Jinchuuriki of this village in fact."

I looked at him and could not believe my luck, "Alright I will fight them, but should both of them lose something during the fight, or I manage to take anything from them, it's mine and they are not getting it back, deal?"

He laughed and said if they lost anything to a punk like me, they were not worthy to have it, so I would be more than welcome to keep whatever I got from them.

The fight would be in the arena where they held their Chuunin exams, unlike most other places this village held an all out tournament to determine who can be Chuunin, and what is worse it was a free for all, that is right fifty men and women fighting at the same time.

I had to admit this arena was quite the sight, as I looked at it two men showed up. They both looked at me like the people in Konoha did, like I was nothing more than something nasty they had to scrape off the bottom of their shoes.

"So you are our opponent, I am Roshi, and the man over there is Han, now what should we inscribe on your tombstone?" These punks sure never learned to respect their elders it seems, I always felt that I did a horrible job raising my two boys, but after everything, I been through my wife will agree, we actually did a pretty good job as being parents.

"You can call me Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki, or if you prefer to be poetic, I am the infernal flame that dances on the graves of my enemies. Now if the introductions are over, do we start our fight or do you want to bore me to death?"

Onoki finally showed up and without even a moments notice the stands were already full, with a smile he screamed for the fight to start. I threw my kunai at my two opponents and they both laughed as they missed, the field had dozens of kunai sticking all over the arena floor. As I saw my stage was set, I decided to begin my real attack.

Using the flight of the thunder god, I evaded the attack of one, countered it and knocked him out, and when Han tried to put me in a Genjutsu, I turned around and used my Tsukuyomi against him. I had him crucified to a metal cross, and he would not be able to break free in a million years.

I used this opportunity to enter his mind and take back one of the pieces of my soul he fainted as soon as the chakra from the tailed beast was no longer flowing through him. I guess the kid actually depended a little too much on the tailed beast after all.

Once he was out, Onoki actually used a technique that made the unconscious Han float out of the arena, and that left me with just me and Roshi. I did the same thing again, he tried to use that large mace he was using against me, and when he was near I kicked him hard enough to knock him out, or so I tried, he instead dropped the mace and tried to break my neck.

I instead held him by his throat and by the time I entered his mind, he was helpless to do anything. He screamed and yelled inside his own mind as I broke the pathetic seal and took back another part of my soul. I was much stronger thanks to having recovered two more pieces of my soul, and I had a lot more experience and knowledge thanks to the things the two tailed beasts learned since I was cut into pieces by my son.

As I exited him Roshi looked at me and could not believe what he saw, "Just who in the world are you kid?" I told him that we were done with the introductions I told him the truth when he asked me the first time, I am the infernal flame that dances on the graves of my enemies.

The two were knocked out and since Onoki was not saying anything to end the fight I took a kunai from the ground and began to walk to where Roshi was. As I placed my kunai at his throat Onoki finally realized he better say something.

"Wow, hold it! The fight is over! You pass, don't need to kill them to get your point across that you are skilled. What I want to know why is it that they are still unconscious and why do you feel a whole lot different than when the fight began, it is almost like your chakra reserves grew instantly."

I looked at Onoki and could not help but to shake my head, "I told you that anything they lost during the fight, it was mine to keep. Let's just say they don't really need those seals anymore. As my chakra growing that is incorrect, it was restored by a fraction of what it once was."

He floated to me and to where the two men were still unconscious, indeed they were suffering from severe chakra exhaustion. "I sense there is a story behind what you just said, but since you beat these two, I guess you are Jounin material alright. Now, why don't you come with me to my office and I can get you registered, give you our village headband, and you can tell me that story while we figure what you will do from now on."

I was feeling generous, might as well tell the Tsuchikage the truth, he will need to feel that he can trust me if I am ever going to get his help to get those six other pieces of my soul back. As we walked her secretary threw at me the headband and her for some reason didn't seem that happy with me at all.

I walked in and Onoki floated towards his seat and sat down. I sat down on my seat and waiting for him to get comfortable. "So how is it that you can contain three tail beasts? Don't even deny it, we once tried to kidnap Kushina Uzumaki to take the nine tails from Konoha. So how can you contain three tailed beasts? Our Jinchuuriki had trouble enough with one."

I looked at him and asked him if I could get myself some of that tea that was on his desk, he said I could. I took a cup of it and smelled it, sort of reminded me of the tea my wife used to make when I was feeling anxious actually.

"Well you are wrong in many assumptions, first off is my age, I am a lot older than you may think. I am the father of the one you called the Sage of the six paths and his brother, as to me having three tailed beasts inside me, that is wrong too. I simply reabsorbed three pieces of my soul."

"My eldest son trapped my wife on the thing you called the moon, and he cut me into ten pieces. To you, those nine tailed beasts are weapons that the Sage of the six paths created, but in reality, they are all me, pieces of my soul to be exact. Every time I absorb one I regain some of my memories, chakra, and skills."

Onoki looked at me and began to almost look at me with a sympathetic look on his face. "Must be tough living knowing your own son did something that horrible to you. I guess it works for our benefit, everyone else who looks at you will think that you are just some punk. They will underestimate your abilities. Speaking of which what do you think you can do for this your village?"

I could not help but to laugh as he said that, "Well I could join the ANBU, I could go out and work as a Hunter, or I could take three kids and become a Jounin Instructor. I got hundreds of years of experience and having three kids might remind me of the good times when I was a father to my two sons."

He laughed as he served himself a cup of the same tea I was drinking. "I know the feeling all too well, I used to be a father too, once upon a time. A person with your experience and strength would be wasted in ANBU or as a Hunter, instead, I think you are right, you would be better as a Jounin Instructor. As it happens a class of kids is graduating from the Academy tomorrow."

I looked at him and he stopped sipping his tea, "I will take those three kids, and teach them harshly but fairly, I will not accept excuses or slackers, keep that in mind when you assign those kids to me. Being a ninja is not for the weak, the lazy or the unprepared."

He began to laugh as he began drinking his tea again, "It seems we will get along rather well, it is nice to meet a person after my own heart, who knows maybe you will find a lovely young lady and have some kids here."

I asked where was I going to live? He threw at me a key and a piece of paper with an address. I got up from my seat and began to walk towards the exit. "I am sure this village has some beautiful young ladies Lord Tsuchikage, but I am already spoken for. My lovely wife Kaguya is waiting for me, maybe one day we will be able to settle and build a home here."

I walked out of the office with the headband tied firmly on my head, and I looked at the secretary still glaring at me, for some odd reason this secretary felt like I should know her for some reason.

I got to admit that he walk towards the apartment was interesting, to say the least, I found several grocery stores with rather nice prices, an equipment shop that had all the tags and healing supplies I would need, the weapons shop was a sight to see, with all those weapons and armors hanging from the racks.

I walked over to the apartment building and realized that the key was just to enter the building, every apartment had this square metal plate right beneath where the number was. I walked over to the one that was written on the note and touched it, and sure enough, I felt like something had pricked me with a few needles.

I looked down and saw the plate had indeed sent three needles into my hand and retracted into the plate. I touched the plate again and the door opened the second that I sent chakra to the plate.

"Well at least I know my things will be secure, and I will be able to sleep without anyone bothering me. Just how long are you going to follow me without even bothering to introduce yourself?"

I felt someone behind me as she came straight out of the ground. "How long have you known I was following you?" I didn't bother turning around, I just walked inside my apartment, "Since I left the building where the Tsuchikage's office is located. Are you going to tell me who you are? Or do I have to take that information from your mind the hard way?"

She began to laugh as I said that and I mean really laugh, her form changed to reveal something odd, she looked like a mixture between a Venus flytrap, and a woman. Half her body that looked like a human was white and the other half was black."

"My name is Zetsu, and I came here to steal those two tailed beasts that you took from Han and Roshi. You stole my prey, why shouldn't I be angry? I don't know how you did it Uzumaki, but I will give you a chance to give them to me, and the nine tails or I will kill you."

I looked at her and began shaking my head, "I guess you didn't believe the story I told Onoki then, Kurama, Son Goku and Kokuo don't exist anymore, so you can't have them, they are back to where they came from, me. I don't know who sent you after the pieces of my soul and I don't care."

"I will regain all the pieces of my soul, I will use my power to free my beloved wife from that prison they call the moon, and I will destroy anyone or anything that tries to get in my way of achieving my goal! My beloved Kaguya shall be free, we will be together again, and nothing will stop me from achieving that, not even you."

She looked at me and began to laugh, "If you are the husband of the Rabbit Goddess, then tell me something only the two of you would know."

I walked over to the kitchen and sat down on a chair in the dining room. "A thing only I and my wife would know, well there was something nobody knew, when my wife was pregnant with our two sons she had a strange food craving, she wanted hard boiled eggs pickled in honey and served with this cream made out of mustard seeds."

That is when she immediately pulled me up from my seat and hugged me, I was caught completely by surprise and tried to push her away from me till I hear her cry. "It is nice to finally meet you, daddy."

What the bloody hell? This person threatened to kill me and now she was calling me daddy! "Mother will be very happy to hear that you are still faithful to her after your rebirth, you don't need to worry about me dad, I am working with a group that I am using to do exactly what you are trying to do, to free mom from the moon."

She walked away from me and changed form again to look like the secretary. "I often leave a Shadow Clone to cover for me when I go looking for the other tailed beasts. Don't you worry daddy, I will help you get back those pieces my elder brother cut from you. You will find gear, clothing and other things in that closet over there, don't you worry dad, I will keep your secret, you are safe with me."


	5. Chapter 5

This is a Naruto Fanfiction Only.

In the next morning, I was dressed in my Jounin armor, I had my headband tied on my head, and I had a quick and easy breakfast, I jumped out of the window in the apartment building and began jumping from roof to roof till I reached the building where I was going, the Academy.

Onoki was waiting for me on the little Terrance that was near the roof of the Academy, I jumped from one tree branch to get to it and he was smiling at me as I landed near him. "Eager to meet your charges I see, I can't fault you, I was pretty nervous when I became an instructor long ago. Don't worry, nobody here will know that you were born in that dumb."

I looked at him and nodded my head, "So the graduation is taking place and I gather you are here to give the congratulatory speech Lord Tsuchikage." He began laughing as he heard me say that and began nodding as I waited for his response.

"Indeed I am Naruto, it is a tradition in our village for me to assign new Genin into their teams, this makes them realize that from now on, I am the one that has control over their lives, and they are under my complete authority."

I could not help but feel like I was getting the first lecture instead of the kids who just happened to have graduated. "You Naruto will have an extra difficulty that the other instructors do not have, the Genin in your squad is pretty much young and so are you in appearance but they will not know the truth."

"I would not put it past them to say that you are either the son of their instructor or a punk pretending and putting on airs. They don't know the things I know, and such they will not take your authority seriously thinking you are the same as them. My instructors have complete authority over their charges, and as such their lives are your responsibility. Try to keep them alive, for the good of our village."

I looked at him and he stopped talking, "I will train them, but if you expect me to go easy on them, then you are mistaken. I will prepare them for war, I will teach them to be ready for anything, and if that means they will get a few bruises well that is what it takes. I, in fact, think a little test is in order, have you ever heard of the infamous bell test?"

Onoki looked at me as he began floating in the air. "I do know some of the details of that test, it was invented by a Hokage to test teamwork, I think there is a very high chance that the Genin assigned to you will fail," I told him it was better that they failed the test, than to have to face an enemy unprepared.

With my test I told him, they go back to the academy for a year, but an enemy will never show them that much mercy, I told him in real life if they fail they could very well die or worse. "I approve of the test then, I got to tell you Naruto, I almost feel sorry for the kids I assigned to be in your squad."

He began floating down to the entrance of the Academy and I saw him enter the building. I sat down on a bench on the Terrace and waited for my team to show up. I kept thinking that if I had actually graduated in Konoha I would probably be the one being assigned to a team, much like the kids assigned to me.

I looked at the door, and I could see the handle move as the door opened, a young man, and two young women came through the door and were shocked to see me. "So you lot are my team, come on kids, sit closer to me, I don't bite."

The three Genin came and sat on benches near where I was seated, they actually kept their distance from me and I could see the confusion in their eyes. "I guess a brief introduction is necessary. Let me give you an example, My name is Naruto Uzumaki, I have a few things I like, I have a lot of things I don't like and my dreams are obviously none of your business."

The look they gave me the second I finished my introduction practically screamed one thing, they were all thinking that the only thing they got was my name. "Alright, you with a scowl, your next."

He looked at me and began shaking his head, "My name is Homura, Kenshin Homura, I like to train, and practice with my family's style of swordsmanship, I dislike cowards and crooks, my dream is to make my family proud."

I then pointed at the person next to Kenshin, she got up and looked at me, "My name is Kisara, Kirara Homura, the guy over there is my twin brother, I like to learn new things every day, cook, and keep my gear in good shape, I dislike sexist creeps that think that I am weak because I happen to be a girl. My dream is to become an instructor of the best Genin team in our village."

The last Genin looked at me and got up, she didn't wait for me to tell her she was next, someone was a little eager to get to the training it seems, that was always a good sign for me. "I am Sango Hamashiri, I like to train and fight, I hate people that slack off and don't take me seriously, my dream is to become the Commander of the ANBU division of our village."

I had to admit I got to know them rather well from the way they behaved and what they said, their introductions told me a great deal, but their body language told me in which way to interpret what they said. Had I been a regular guy I would have missed much, but thanks to the experience I already possess they were practically open books to me.

"Good Introductions, let's get down to business, shall we? Tomorrow we will meet at that field over there." I got up and pointed at a field that looked like it was used for practice and training, the training dummies made the field easy to identify.

"You each will take a single test from me, the test is to see how ready you are to begin serving our village and the Lord Tsuchikage, I would highly suggest that you skip breakfast tomorrow, this exam is not going to be easy, and if you eat breakfast this exam might cause you to throw up. Any questions?"

Sango was the first to raise her hand, I nodded my head telling her that she could ask her question, "When are we going to hear your real introduction Instructor? We would like to know your likes, dislikes, and dreams for the future as well."

I looked at her and saw that she was already trying to behave like we are equals, and to see how far they could get away with. I looked at her and then at the others, "Let me add a little incentive to this test, if you pass the test tomorrow I shall do just that, but only if you pass. I will meet you on that field at six in the morning, you better not be late or you shall be punished. I shall tell you the details of the exam when we meet tomorrow, that is all, dismissed."

They all turned around and began to walk towards the door and I sent chakra through my ears and began to listen to them talk as they walked down the ladder towards the ground floor of the Academy. It seems they were complaining a lot more than they dared when they were in front of me, they complained about how young I looked, and one even said that I clearly was not that experienced at all.

It seems the twins don't have faith in my abilities or the fact they think I am no better than they are, Sango told them to shut up, that they would learn how strong I was when they met me on the field. She said that actions speak louder than words, and no amount of complaining was going to change that.

They were just assigned to me and I already have two students who clearly have no faith in my ability to lead them, and one student who pretty much was going to be the one we actually would see eye to eye on things.

I was up and early waiting for my students on the practice field, I looked at the clock that was a few meters away from the field and they were ten minutes late. I could only think that they better have a good excuse for being late.

As the clock reached six thirty they actually showed up. I tried my best to smile, but I will not lie, I was really quite angry, they saw me and walked over to where I was. Did they think the time was a suggestion?

"Well now that everyone is here, I shall explain your test." I took out two bells from my belt utility pouch, and held them in the air, "The test is very simple, get these two bells from me by any means possible, those who get a Bell pass, the one without one fails. I was going to be merciful and say that if you managed to get the bells at all, you would pass, but after making me wait this long, without an apology or reason for your delay I had thirty minutes to rethink my exam."

They all began looking quite nervous, "I also happen to hear every single thing you said walking down the stairs in the Academy building. So after thinking about these two incidents, I decided to make my exam much harsher than I had initially planned. I had planned to send the failing student back for another year at the Academy, but after what you said and this, well I decided we don't need dead weight around here, so instead I am going to kill the one that fails."

Just as I predicted they all began screaming that it would not be fair and that I could not get away with killing any of them. I waited for them to be quiet, "I have complete authority over you three, which means I can kill you all, the work of a ninja is bloody, violent, and harsh, we are not heroes, we fight and die for our village and our Kage. You have thirty minutes, and the time started when I first said bell."

I actually had a Shadow Clone tell them all this, and now that he finished it disappeared in a cloud of gray smoke, they must think it was a smoke screen. I had taken a spot to look at them and listen what they had to say far enough for me to listen, and far enough so that they would not detect me.

"Great, just great you had to say those things yesterday didn't you brother. Guess what? He might look our age, but the guy looked dead serious when he said he was going to kill one of us, and he was looking at me when he said it! I hope you are happy!"

Boy did Kisara have a good set of lungs in her, "And you took longer to get ready, don't cry to me, he was upset that we were late sister, I told you we should be there thirty minutes early, but no, what did you scream at me from inside the bath? Girls take longer to get ready?"

I hate to say it but Kenshin actually had a point, too bad that point was on top of his head. "Look he was placed in charge of us so he must be a Jounin, but he is still a guy, he must be as horny as the rest of the guys in our class, so here is what I suggest, me and Kisara here will try to find him, seduce him, and while we keep him busy, you Kenshin take the bells. Whistle when you got them, and then we will run away from him, he will chase us and we will toss the Bells between each other when the time runs out, he will have to pass us."

Kisara probably is nodding her head, "Why go through all that? Why don't we simply knock him out?" Again Kenshin had no faith in my abilities it seems.

"Because we are not the worst student in our class, you are brother the guy is a Jounin, if we don't work together we have no chance against him, great plan Sango, but how do we seduce him? We aren't wearing things that would be good for that sort of thing."

Kenshin began laughing, "You guys got all you need for that, what does a horny teenager like more than a little T&A." I heard him get slapped by the two women in his team, had I been a normal teenager I would have agreed with Kenshin, but since I am an adult and a parent, I had to say the girls had every right to slap the idiot the way they did.

I made a Shadow Clone look like he was standing in the middle of the park, and he was reading a copy of the Bingo Book, I waited for a little bit, and saw my Shadow Clone chasing after them, they indeed were throwing the Bells between each other, but my Clone actually managed to get the bells a few times, he was then tackled by one of them and threw the Bells to someone else.

When the time ran out, my Clone disappeared and I received the memories. They really did try to seduce him after all, they showed up and were showing more cleavage than they had any business showing anyone, they even went as far as to get really close to him and whisper that if he let both of them pass he could have his way with both of them.

My clone tried to get free from them pressing their bodies against him, when he realized that Kisara actually took the bells from him, once she did and he heard a whistle they both took off, and that is when she threw them at Kenshin, after that the test got turned into a much more physical version of hot potato.

Like I said my clone sometimes got the bells and then I heard him being tackled, but it was until I saw the memories of that Clone that I realized that it was the women in my team doing the tackling. They were using their seduction scheme to get the bells each and every time that my Clone was tackled onto the ground.

As I went to where the three of them looked at where my Clone disappeared, I took hold of my Ninjato. "Well looks like only one person has the Bells, good going with the plan Sango, that really surprised me, now if you two siblings, don't tell me what I am testing here, I am going to tell your mother and father to prepare two caskets for you two."

Sango stepped right in front of them almost like she was shielding them, "Teamwork, this test was about working together. We had no chance to get those bells from you sir without teamwork." Kisara actually was right but only partially.

I kept sending killer intent their way, they need to get used to feeling that anyways, "And?" I looked at Sango and Kenshin, "To think about the benefit of the team and not just yourself, to be willing to do something you hate for the good of the others."

I threw at each one a Bell and they caught them. "Right, good answers team, good answers. And look you all managed to get a bell each, so I guess I won't be killing any of you." They each opened their hand and they were empty.

That is when they really started to get nervous, I couldn't help but to laugh, "Before you three end up having an accident, why don't you look at your belts?" The bells had been tied on each of their belts by my shadow clone, the only thing is the bells don't ring.

I turned around and began walking, "Come on guys, we don't have all day, we need to get our first mission from our Kage, and then we got some training to do." I had to admit seeing the memories of my Shadow Clone running after them, while they tossed the Bells between each other made me remember my sons.


	6. Chapter 6

This is a Naruto Fanfiction Only.

Sango was not moving an inch from where she was standing, she pretty much demanded that I make good on my bet. I for one didn't like her tone one bit, but in the end, I decided to tell them my likes dislikes and my dream. I told them I like training and learning new things, I disliked perverts and traitors, and my dream was to being together with my beloved wife.

They didn't miss a single chance in asking me where my supposed wife was. I told them she was very far away, but easy to locate. As we walked toward the Tsuchikage office they kept asking me where my wife was, the girls, especially for some reason.

As we reached the building I told them never to ask me again if I told them, they agreed. I just saw the moon and decided to point at it. "You wanted to know where my wife is, there she is."

The girls teased me about being married with the moon, and for once I couldn't disagree with them, they were partially correct, my wife was inside the moon actually. I was not going to tell them that anytime soon, don't need them thinking their Instructor is crazy now, do I?

After we got our mission and we did the first of the infamous D-rank missions, I came to the clear understanding that the time doing them was a waste of time, to called them a glorified form of a chore was just too generous. I decided right there and then I would do things differently for my team.

I decided to go and get the D rank mission like always but then as soon as we were back in the training field, I sent Shadow Clones after they changed to look like us and they would take care of the D rank mission.

While the clones took care of the chore, I was free to teach them about Chakra control, Elemental Manipulation, Stealth and Silent Kill Tactics. The Chakra control exercise was the tree walking exercise.

I decided to show them how easy it was with practice. Mine was going to be different than the ones they learn in Konoha however, I walked towards a wall and without even stopping I began to walk up the wall, and stood on the wall for a few seconds and walked down like it was nothing major.

"To do this exercise you send Chakra to the bottom of your feet, enough Chakra to make you stick to the wall, but if you use too little you will slip off if you use too much you will be sent off the wall and fall. It's all a matter of using just the right amount to stick to the wall, questions?"

Kenshin decided to ask me why would this be useful at all? I told him for starters it made stealth, infiltration and in some cases assassinations a lot easier. I told them that mastery of this particular skill would make them waste less chakra when they used their Jutsu, and if they truly mastered it, they could use the technique to create cushions of chakra on their feet to mask the sound of their steps."

The real reason I need to teach them better chakra control is that if I don't, I can't teach them one of my most useful Jutsu, The Shadow Clone Jutsu. Once these kids know to at least make one of those, then their learning will speed up.

For days I taught them things, and for they kept asking why and why do we need it. Honestly, a little more faith in their instructor wouldn't kill them, I did every D-Rank mission using my clones and all I ever ask them was to pay attention, do as I instructed and maybe, just maybe a little respect.

It took me a solid month to get them ready for to learn the Shadow Clone Jutsu, I gave them an entire lecture on the benefits and dangers of it. At first, they could only make one each, but after a few days and using the one clone they managed to learn to make three after a week.

In their third month they needed a new exercise and for me, it was finally time to take them fishing, for you see the next exercise I was going to teach them is the water walking one. I couldn't help picturing them trying and failing the first time, this will be funny.

Onoki was not that surprised that my students advanced that quickly, I got the sneaky suspicion that he has a couple of Iwa ANBU following us. Well after three solid months we were finally ready for C rank missions it seems. A young woman named Tsunami sent our village a letter.

The letter was shall we say graphic, she described how miserable her life was, it almost reminded me of Konoha truth be told. She requested that our village eliminates and take down a criminal group that has pretty much declared her hometown their little kingdom, extortion, forced labor, prostitution, public executions, and worse.

The only thing that made me stop reading was when she said that this criminal group also controlled all commerce, that causes me to think of a question. If they controlled their means to make a living, how are they going to pay us? Doing the work of a ninja is not a charity. I asked Onoki and he flat out told me to keep reading.

Ah, there is the answer and IOU. I am not even kidding this person pretty much said help us and we will pay you later. I began to wonder why is this considered a C rank mission? Something about this felt a little odd, almost like something else is going on. I decided to do the only thing I could, I accepted and told our esteemed Tsuchikage we would leave first thing tomorrow.

The kids were really happy that they would finally be able to put their training to as they said good use. I swear these kids are acting like this is a picnic. I better keep an eye on them, make sure they make it back home to their parents. I don't want to have to explain to a crying mother how her son went a little too enthusiastic and got himself and someone else killed.

In my previous life, I did that quite a bit as their Emperor, I did not want to do that now. One look at the secretary and she got the message. I needed to speak with my daughter it seems.

Sure enough, as I got to my home, there she was already, she was sitting in on a chair in my living room waiting for me. "Well dad you probably are wondering why your team is getting sent to an A rank and all the while being told it is a C rank mission. You really got yourself to blame actually."

"The old man has been keeping an eye on how you trained your team, and after each one of them could make three Shadow Clones, of course, he would want to test how effective your training of them us. I mean seriously dad, the Shadow Clone Jutsu, why didn't you teach them the Flight of the thunder god while you were at it? Or how about the Rasengan? I mean that technique was developed by a Hokage, all of them were actually."

I walked over to the fridge and got myself some juice before walking back to where she was sitting and sat down a chair nearby. "You actually sound worried about me Zetsu, honestly this is not going to be a nothing that bad, I will make it back alive. I told you I would not stop till I regained all my pieces, and I can be once again together with Kaguya."

She just looked at me and I guess when she realized how much I missed my wife, she didn't say anything else about the mission. "I took care of your packing, everything you need is in the storage scroll by your bed, I have been searching and I already found out that Suna has one of your pieces, and Kumo has two. If you somehow you get those three the total would be five so that leaves four unaccounted for."

I looked at her and began shaking my head, "I am sure you will find the other four eventually. Now all I need is to cook myself some dinner, or have some leftovers, and go to sleep. I got a feeling that tomorrow I am going to need to be rested."

The very next morning I am waiting for my team by the gate, I am no kidding or happy. I have been waiting for the last three hours. Didn't the parents of these kids tell them to pack before going to sleep? I cooked breakfast, cleaned my dishes, done some laundry and even managed to rearrange my closet, or I would have if I didn't have to stand near the gate for this long feeling like I am a frog on a log.

They finally showed up, I took a deep breath and tried my best to smile, "You guys finally showed up, mind telling me whatever happened to pack the night before, getting up early, and me telling you we leave early?"

Kenshin pretty much looked at his sister and then at me, "First off I did pack early, secondly if you want to blame anyone Instructor Uzumaki, then you can blame my sister. I packed early but it seems she could not decide which clothes to pack in her storage scroll. I have the sneaky suspicion that it involved both revealing lacy clothes, and trying to seduce you again."

I could not help but to shake my head as I heard that, "In my case, it doesn't really matter what she wears. Something to protect her body in a combat situation would be preferred. As far as me being seduced by anyone, I guess I really have to say it again, I am married! In other words, I am spoken for, so she has a better chance with someone else."

I looked at Sango and then I had the urge to say that she had a better chance of seducing Sango, but that would be inappropriate and I really don't want to waste more time. I told them we need to be on our way.

The walk was nothing major, mostly until we reached the land of Fire, that is when both the girls on my team marveled at how green and beautiful the place was. "Instructor, how can you hate the place you were born? This place is beautiful, the flowers, the grass, the trees, the streams, I mean we had to learn the water walking exercise in a pool."

I could not argue with Sango she did have a point, "I would agree that this land is beautiful, the fish in some of these rivers are delicious and so are the fruits that grow on some of these trees, vines and other plants. That, however, does not mean Konoha is the same. I hate that dump, couldn't be happier to see it burn to the ground, and stop smiling because I mean it."

As Sango looked around us she said that she wasn't smiling. I told her I was telling the two nitwits that decided to make a puddle Genjutsu right in the middle of this land's dry season. That is when two people came out of the Genjutsu and they appeared to be wearing clawed gauntlets that were chained together, and they were both women.

They clearly took offense at me calling them nitwits because they made a beeline for me. I decided to hell with it, I made a large Rasengan and blew them apart without even trying. My team just looked at the pieces of their bodies scattered all over the place, and then looked at me.

"Hold on, you know an attack like that? When are you planning to ever teach that to us?" I told Kisara the answer to these questions without turning around to look at her. I said that when they got better at their chakra control, I then decided to ask her why do you think I been so keen about Chakra Control Exercises?

The rest of the trip was rather quiet, a little too quiet, something doesn't feel right, and that is when I heard something that made me wonder if I could ask Onoki if I could muzzle one of my students. Kisara looked ahead of us and screamed with glee what a cute like white bunny.

Wait for a second its summer, if that rabbit still has white fur it means, **"EVERYONE GET DOWN NOW!"** Thank goodness they actually listened as a sword came flying directly in the path where they were standing.

"That rabbit has been raised indoors, they shed their white fur at the end of winter, I looked at the man standing on the sword and the second I saw him I remember seeing him in the Bingo Book."

I was looking at the one and only Demon of the mist, Zabuza Momochi. "Nice showy entrance Zabuza, but mind telling me why did you try and kill my students and not focus on me? I was the one that killed your two little peons."

He flat out said that it was just the smart thing to do, to focus on the weaklings of the group. That made my team go from afraid to incredibly ticked off in about a second. Kisara and Sango looked like they wanted to rip him a new air hole.

"Guys, relax, I go this, so the great and mighty Zabuza reduced to a common thug, how have the mighty have fallen. Leave the kids alone, and come fight me instead, or are you too chicken to try?"

It was kind of hard to tell with that facial mask, but I think his face actually turned purple for a second there. He jumped down and took a swing at me with his sword I began throwing my kunai at him and wouldn't you know it they actually thought that I had such terrible aim.

"You talk the talk, but once I fight you, you have thrown twelve kunai at me and not managed to hit me once, I guess you were right. I should have focused on you, the kids would have given me a better fight that you."

The idiot really didn't understand or he didn't pay attention. I was actually preparing the field to use one of my father's techniques, but I also had to say that I was a little distracted with the people watching from behind the trees that were a few dozen feet from my students. I need to teach them better detection skills at some point.

I took another kunai and with a single hand sign I used the Flight of the Thunder God, I went from one kunai to the next cutting into Zabuza as I did so, I went from one Kunai to another at least three times each. Zabuza was cut into so many pieces my students looked at me and collectively said Damn.

I put my hand up and all the kunai came back into my open hand. "I am glad that you are impressed, but also watch your language. You are not from Konoha, we don't use that language in our village, we are actually civilized."

That is when Sasuke came out of hiding when Sakura came marching to where I was, looks like Dog never taught them to hide properly or ignore an obvious taunt. "You are one to talk Naruto, you are from Konoha, and where have you been? The Hokage has been sending people to look for you."

I smiled as she mentioned that, alright it was a fake smile, but still she wouldn't know the difference. "I would say that I am touched, but not really. Hello, Emo, Kakashi, who is the Albino that looks like he forgot what emotions are, and who is the drunk?"

The pale kid walked over to me and looked at me still with that emotionless look on his face, "My name is Sai, and the man who you quite correctly assessed to be a drunk is our client Tazuna, he is the bridge builder from Wave."

Kakashi decided to follow Sai it seems because he looked at me and told me with the way he moved his head that we needed to talk in private, I looked at my team and decided to nod in agreement but not before telling my team something, "Ok, team I need to speak with the Konoha instructor for a bit, if his team tries to get fresh with you, you have my permission to beat them up, just don't kill them."


	7. Chapter 7

This is a Naruto Fanfiction Only.

As I walked over to where Kakashi was waiting for me, he was shaking his head at me, I was pretty much wearing standard Jounin armor, granted it was black with a few red highlights, but I don't see why he is staring at me like that.

"Naruto where have you been? After your class graduated, we went looking for you, apparently, someone left a message saying that they were you and you took the Forbidden Scroll, Iruka, of course, thought it was Mizuki trying to steal the scroll himself and blame you for doing it."

I couldn't help but yawn as he said that, "We actually went to that hunting cabin in the woods looking for you, we thought that you must be pretty sad and wanted some time alone, you can imagine my surprise when we found Mizuki blown to pieces from an overly large explosive tag. You were nowhere to be found?"

Before he continued I rather put this entire explanation of his to rest, "And once the village heard that I was more than likely blown to pieces right with Mizuki, they built a giant statue to their hero Mizuki, and celebrated for two solid months the very notion that I was finally dead?"

Kakashi was quiet a little bit, whispered something, I had to ask him to say it a little louder. "Well you are wrong, they didn't build a statue to Mizuki's honor, and they only celebrated for a day, two at most, but they were fined for doing so later."

The last part of that comment I didn't believe, to me it was more believable that the writer of Icha Icha finally declared himself gay and being in love with Orochimaru since they were both Genin.

"As you might recall Kakashi, I did not graduate, which means I was a civilian. That means that I had every single right to leave the village and find a better place to live in, I did. The idiots in the Academy failed me on purpose and graded every test incorrectly. Just because they will not acknowledge it doesn't make it any less true."

"I went and met the Tsuchikage and took an exam to determine my rank within the ninja of his village, I passed, and now I am a Jounin Instructor of Iwagakure. Those three that you saw with me are my students, and where have I been? Training and doing D rank missions with my students, something I imagine you been doing too."

Kakashi saw me walk away from him and tried to grab my shoulder, I took hold of his hand and pushed it away. "Do you have anything else to ask me? Cause I need to find out who that drunk is and go to Wave with my team. I don't have time to waste chatting."

He looked at me and I swear he was almost looking rather sad, it was either that or amazing acting skills, and I mean Award winning acting skills. "Do you have any idea where the nine tails or the Forbidden Scroll are?" Yep, acting, he is missing a golden opportunity making movies.

"The scroll you call the Forbidden Scroll is actually the property of the Uzumaki Clan, and since I was the last living member of that clan in that village, it was my property. I didn't steal anything at all, I just took what was mine before leaving. As for the nine tails, I did something my father, the Fourth Hokage, did not or could not do, the nine tails are dead. I absorbed it into my body, in layman's terms I ate it, and it was delicious. So Konoha may try and kill me but they will never be able to use the nine tails again, cause it not longer exists."

"Now like I said, my job as a Jounin Instructor in Iwa is not as laid back as yours apparently, I need to take care of things. You want to chat Dog, then we can chat when I have some free time, but that time is not now."

I walked away from him, I could feel him following me. "You must be Tazuna, don't worry we were hired by your daughter, we have been given clear instructions to eliminate Gato and his criminal group in its entirety. Come on, get up, we have long ways to go to reach your town. You are safe now that we are here."

I walked over to the pale Konoha ninja I came to know as Sai and could not help but to feel sorry for him, "Tell me Sai did this man say that you and your team were going to be facing rogue ninjas?" He flat out said no. I guess the money situation in Wave was worse than the letter said.

"That means the contract he wrote with Konoha is null and void. Fortunately for you Tazuna the contract your daughter signed is still very much in effect. Sai I wish you the best of luck dealing with the Emo Prince here, and the screaming Pink Banshee. You have no idea how much pity I feel for you right now."

Sasuke and Sakura glared daggers at me, but I didn't care. "Come on, team lets' go, our client is waiting in Wave and we are escorting her father there, we have a long way to go, and we are wasting daylight. Kakashi, you and the others can return to your dump, I mean your village. Be sure to tell them if they sent anyone thinking that they will kill me, tell them that I will not be as merciful with them as I was with Mizuki."

As Tazuna came to our team, I heard someone yelling for us to stop. "Sorry Naruto but no can do, we signed a contract to escort that man to his town, and that is exactly what we shall do, and I still got a bone to pick with you, so I and my team are coming with you."

I looked at Kenshin, Sango, and Kisara and began shaking my head. "Sorry guys, it seems there Konoha bunch are going to be sticking with us till we finish this mission. So we need to take care of this mission as soon as possible, so we can go back to our village."

As soon as we reached the shoreline, we saw that the boat didn't have space for nine people. I was tempted to tell them that we take the boat and the people of Konoha could swim, but that would create an international incident so I decided to keep it to myself.

"Naruto are you sure you and your team will be alright not riding the boat? I mean if you wait here, we can actually send the boat back to pick you and these kids up." The look of anger on my students' faces made me smile, I was feeling quite proud at their reaction let me tell you.

We all walked over to the shoreline and as the boat began to cross the massive river, I and my team began to walk right alongside the boat. It was good Chakra Control practice, and as we often did, we don't waste a chance to practice and get better. Sakura looked at us with a look of utter disbelief, she kept trying over and over again to walk on water like me and my team was doing.

I stopped her from doing that again, she was liable to drown herself if she kept that up. "Your Instructor has not even taught you the tree walking exercise, has he? Unlike you, we in Iwa train every chance we get, we can walk on water because our Chakra control is that much better than yours. What does that say about the skills of Konoha Genin?"

She grabbed my jacket and looked at me, she was a little close for comfort. "You can say anything you like about yourself, you are only fooling yourself. You are from Konoha, and your words are a disgrace to your birthplace you miserable d."

I place the cutting edge on my ninjato on her neck as she said d. "Go on, complete what you were going to say banshee but be warn call me a demon and I will cut off your head and leave your corpse to become fish food."

"detestable traitor. Iwa has been a place that has hated our village for years, your parents must be rolling in their graves after you betrayed our village and joined the village that would more than likely love to kill every person in Konoha!"

I looked at her and she stopped talking as my killer intent was felt on the boat. "You don't like me, that is fine. You or your fellow Konoha punks are not needed, Once we are across you can take the boat back across. Being with you is not what I can I call pleasant."

I could feel the sheer hate coming from Sakura, "Naruto you might need some help, this criminal group might be a little too much to handle with a team with so little experience." I was honestly not interested in listening to Kakashi tell me that my team was inexperienced, I had better thing to do than that.

I saw a strange light on one of the columns and sure enough, I found a rather crude explosive device, the time was set for a couple of hours. I told me, students, to look as I began to disarm the explosive, explaining to them the entire process and how to identify each part of the bomb.

Like I said I had something much better than to listen to Kakashi saying ridiculous things like I actually needed his team at all. This is one of those times I regret not having signed a summoning contract. If I had I could send a message back to Onoki, and I would have an official way to deal with the situation.

The outcome would have to be one of two possible outcomes, the best he sent me a message pretty much telling me I was permitted to kill the Konoha team. If I did that my loyalty to Iwa would be more than confirmed, or I could show the paper to Kakashi and he would run away with his team if only to keep the Emo Prince safe.

The worst outcome he could tell me to actively work with the Konoha team, I could see the possibility of this being used to improve diplomatic relations between our villages, or simply to keep them thinking that we are not a threat to them at all.

Since I could not send the message I wouldn't know how he would respond to this situation. I decided to concentrate on my mission and ignore they even exist in the first place.

My team managed to defuse twelve explosives planted on the support columns of what looked to be the beginnings of a rather massive bridge. As a man responsible for the well-being of an entire Empire, I knew quite a few things many didn't suspect, some things being construction and architecture.

I had to authorize all sort of construction projects, so knowledge of that made me a rather well-informed ruler. I placed the defused bombs in a scroll and decided to walk across till me and my team was on the shoreline. "Instructor Uzumaki, do we really have to work with this bunch of tree hugging morons? Can't we take care of the mission really fast and avoid having to be with that lot?"

I looked at Sango as we waited for the boat to reach us, "I wish Sango, I truly wish we could do that, but we need to meet with the client, gather information of the numbers our enemies have and information of their leader. That tragically will take some time."

As we began walking towards the place Tazuna felt like talking with someone or else why would he come close to me? "Tell me Naruto how did my daughter manage to get your village to get you to accept?"

I didn't turn around and told him through a very careful and detailed worded letter. "What I want to know is how are you going to support the weight of that bridge on support columns that small?"

He began to laugh, "There is strength in numbers, but you are correct, we will reinforce them at some point in the construction project, you are awfully knowledgeable to be able to figure that out, and you are so young."

I wanted to tell him that I was older, I really did, but they would never believe me. I also didn't want to mention anything and give Konoha any more information about me. Got to keep your friends close, but your enemies closer, I always wondered if that old saying was talking figuratively or actually physically. Konoha was close enough to my home, a little too close for my liking.

As we reached his home, which to be honest looked like a converted office of his construction company. I walked in and I had to admit, he may be a drunk, but at some point in his life he was able to do fascinating work, the place looked cozy, friendly, and a rather nice home.

I saw a beautiful woman come to greet us, "I take it you are our client, a pleasure to make your acquaintance at long last. I am Jounin Instructor Naruto Uzumaki, these three are my students, Kenshin, Kisara, and Sango. The other man here is the people your father hired I still don't know why he hired ninja from Konoha truth be told."

She began to walk towards me and smiled, "Well you have to understand Mr. Uzumaki, we sent that letter quite some time ago, my father was under the impression that your village had rejected our request for aid."

She looked at her father and then at me, she looked like she was feeling quite troubled, "I told my father that the decision would take some time, but unfortunately I received your reply to my letter, only after he had already left to get help from another village, I see it was Konoha."

I couldn't help but to feel sorry for the family, they would have to pay my village and then pay Konoha, talk about having financial troubles, and I imagine they will have quite a bit ahead of them till the town recovers even after Gato and his criminal group are dealt with.

"Sorry for the delay on our part, the distance between us and the extra care to ensure the letter was not stopped or stolen made the letter arrive later than we would initially have planned. By the way, something smells great, I feel like I must apologize if I am interrupting your family dinner with this talk."

She almost immediately smiled and thanked me for the compliment. "It is no bother at all, please come into the dining room, all of you must be quite hungry after your long trip and making sure my father was safe."

As we walked over to the dining room, I decided to help our client with the pots and pans and helped her place them on the table. As soon as I was done and was about to sit down I heard someone running in the hallway above us and down the stairs, it seems.

" **YOU ARE ALL FOOLS, GATO IS INVINCIBLE, YOU WILL NEVER DEFEAT HIM, YOU COME THINKING THAT YOU CAN SAVE US! YOU DON'T KNOW OUR PAIN! YOU WHO LIVED AN EASY AND CAREFREE LIFE, HAVE NO IDEA OF OUR SUFFERING!"**

I swear the kid looks like he is the same age as Konahamaru, and it seems he is as temperamental as the honorable grandson of the Third Hokage. Sakura looked like she was about to lose what little composure she had.

I decided to get up and look at him, I been a parent before, so you could say I was a capable disciplinarian. "You got to say your little speech, but let me ask you what do you know of us? You think you are the only one that knows suffering?"

I walked over to him, "Have you been given rotten food? Told to sleep on the ground? Been injured and refused medical help? Had assassinations attempts been your only birthday present? Well? Tell me, kid, does your entire town wish for your death every single day?"

He told me no, that none one ever would be treated like that. "I was when I lived in Konoha, now here is what I want you to do, go with your mother next time she goes to buy groceries and have a good long look how the people in this town live, I am willing to bet that you will find people that will make you think your life is a thousand times better than theirs."

I looked at Tsunami and told her that I needed to go out and blow some steam, I apologized for any trouble I might have caused. I began to walk over to the exit, and without turning, "No need to follow guys, enjoy the meal and be sure to thank our client. I will be back in the morning."


	8. Chapter 8

This is a Naruto Fanfiction Only.

I pretty much knew that my students would understand that they should not follow me, and let's face it Kakashi and his team would not even care to follow me, it's not like they would worry about me walking around in a crime infested town when it was dark. Actually, I truly believe that Sakura at the very least wished that I met a gruesome end due to a mugging.

I need information about Gato's operation and information that would also help me recover most of the money this criminal has stolen from the people. Let's face it, the construction is going to need massive funds to actually finish, and it would take them years to actually get their economy to a point that they are able to pay for our mission.

Onoki would not be happy to learn that it would take Wave years to pay off the debt that they now have thanks to the mission we were doing, I mean for crying out loud, this is not charity, we are expected to get paid for our work.

The other thing was that part of that debt was owed to Konoha, and let's face it Konoha is a lot closer to Wave than our village is. If Konoha was to put pressure on Wave for them to pay off the debt, it would be easy to see Wave putting off paying us, to pay off Konoha.

That means I can not depend on the Konoha team to actually pull this through or even help, my failure would a massive reward for some on that team. So that leaves me with two choices, either ask my team to work with me or do the work myself and have my team actually keep our client and her family safe, seeing that I would need to do some rather gruesome things I decided to let the kids guard our client's family.

I decided to go towards the local bar and with a nice illusion, I was the spitting image of a ruthless, backstabbing, heartless bandit, the sort Gato would consider his soul mate if everything I heard from our client's letter was true.

I walked into the bar and looked at the people inside, "You pieces of human garbage keep to yourself or I will pull your heart out by yanking on that thing you have hanging out of your mouths!"

I went to sit down the bar and a person came towards me and offered me a drink, I expect the darn thing to be poisoned. "Look, friend, we all live in this shit hole we once called a town, what exactly got you in such a Wave sort of mood?"

I looked at the drink and after a quick sip, I decided to answer, "Oh sure come to the Land of Fire the boss said, a marauder's paradise he said, a place where a rascal like myself could get down to do my bloody business, except that it's chock full of chakra using psychopaths. A group of kids killed my boss, my crew, and I barely got away with my hide, do you think that would make anyone feel happy?"

Half the bar actually began to look at me in a completely different light it seems, I got more sympathy after that than in my entire childhood. "Yeah, it does sound like you got a raw deal, but don't worry here, we got it pretty sweet around here, the big crime boss named Gato has given us plenty of chances to torment the townies, and he promised pretty good pay once we get rid of that stupid bridge builder."

I took another sip and looked at the man sitting right next to me, "Sure does sound nice, but if I don't get at least one good chance to butcher someone it's just not a good day. Does this Gato guy torment or do I actually get to get my hands nice and bloody. There is nothing like a good bloodbath to make my day."

The man slapped me on my back and began to laugh, "Finally I meet a man after my own heart, you better believe Gato can give you chances like that and more. Come on, the name is Kiriko, and you are? Since we are being so cordial."

I looked at him and told him they never gave me a name, they sort of call the Kazuku Junior. "So how about we finish this drink and you tell me when can I meet your boss, I want to get some killing and more importantly earn my some money for doing such fun things."

He told me to meet him at the entrance to the dock area early tomorrow, six in the morning, apparently Gato didn't like to waste time. I knew I had tasted that sort of poison at least once in my previous life, and thanks to me recovering at least three pieces of my soul I was pretty much immune to all poisons.

Kiriko my foot, that was the female hunter all over again, got to admit she was really something being able to pretend to be a guy so well that nobody ever figured who or what she really was.

I walked up a tree and tried to sleep, by try I mean Kakashi actually followed me to the tree I was planning to sleep and just followed me to the branch I was going to sleep on. No, it turns out Kiriko was not the daughter of Zabuza, go figure Kiriko was in fact Kakashi. When he told me that I wanted to punch him hard enough to send him crashing into the ground.

"So we both figured that pretending to work for Gato and getting him to trust us would be a good idea. Naruto why didn't you ever return to the Village after you killed Mizuki? You know the Hokage was actually planning to let you graduate if you returned with the scroll, call you a hero and give you an A rank mission reward."

Kakashi really was trying to get me to reconsider my decision, too bad it had even fewer chances than the chances Jiraiya had of actually dating Tsunade Senju. I could probably ask her out on a date too if I wasn't so very much in love with my imprisoned wife.

"Kakashi I was not lying, and maybe you were not told, but I was happy that they decided to fail me out of the Academy, the Forbidden Scroll is actually the Seal Scroll of my clan. I stole nothing, it was always the property of the Uzumaki Clan. The Hokage who later had it wrote on it true, but doesn't change the fact that the scroll is Uzumaki property."

I watch him sit down on the tree branch, "Kakashi if there is anything I am shocked and amazed about it why are you loyal to that place? Back in Iwagakure, the word of our Tschikage is law. He is the leader and in fact ruler of our village. The Hokage? He has reduced to a figure head a long time ago."

"Your father was a war hero, he fought to defend that village through some of the most horrible things a person can experience, how did they thank him for his heroic defense of Konoha? By taking the result of an insignificant mission and ridiculing and mocking him till he took his own life, literately bullied to death, and you are loyal to that place? Do you have any idea how much the Hakate family is worth or what they own?"

He was now looking at me and just listening to what I was saying, it was something no one had ever done before so I was quite surprised. "Kakashi you family owns three out of the four metal producing mines that Konoha has access to. That means that three-thirds of all the things made out of metal came from your family mines."

"Your father killed himself, that is tragic, but tell me Kakashi what happened to your mother?"

Kakashi looked at me and began looking rather sad, "My mother died during child birth Naruto, she died the day I was born, much like yours did. I would think you of all people would not want to bring this up."

I looked at him and sat down near him, "Kakashi my mother did not die of child birth she was murdered, so was yours. There are poisons that can make a woman so weak, that the effort of having a baby will kill them. Kakashi your village is a mirage, a joke, a farce, and a pit of vipers all rolled into one."

"Let's see, if two advisors of the Fire Lord even tried to lie, influence, and undermined the Authority of the Fire Lord, these two idiots would be taken outside, flogged, and publicly executed for treason. There are people in the Council that do that on the daily basis to your Hokage. They reduced him to a figure head, and the Council is the real hidden Authority of that place, a Council that had members who wanted your family to die out for their economic benefit, so again Kakashi they killed your father and mother, why are you loyal to the people that did that to your family?"

I looked at him and could see that he was thinking about the things I said, "Kakashi, my father, and your adoptive father was the Fourth Hokage, but that is not the place my father and yours died for, my father died to protect a place where the will of fire burned bright and promoted unity, that is a den of lying, backstabbing, opportunist, like I said a pit of vipers."

I saw him stand so I stood up as well, "They murdered a so called Noble Clan just to steal a body part, they killed and framed the Uchiha Clan just because Danzo, a member of the Council wanted to steal their eyes for his own benefit, he has a group of terrorists he himself had trained right under your nose and you didn't notice it? Yet I was the one the entire village formed mobs to try and murder me."

He looked at me and began shaking his head, "You said quite a few things I need to think about, just don't be late for our meeting Junior. We both need to find out what Gato is really up to, and if we must, diminish his numbers somehow."

I looked at him and couldn't believe this guy played me like that, "Look Kakashi, Kiriko, whatever you want to call yourself, I am tired, angry and unless you want me to be late, go back to Tazuna's place and sleep, or at the very least let me sleep."

He was about to leave and suddenly he turned around, "Why don't you come back with me? You know the guy has more than enough space for all of us to sleep on. You seriously plan to do a bird impression and sleep on this here tree branch? Why would you do that when you can sleep much more comfortably where I am going."

I guess he was not paying attention, I looked at him as I leaned on the tree trunk. "You didn't even teach your students the tree walking exercise, so that means Sakura, Sai, and Sasuke can't get up here. Do you honestly think I would sleep in the same building with a group of people that, much like the rest of their village, want me dead?"

"I am not comfortable here that is true, it will get cold, but nothing up here will try to stab me in the middle of the night or try to cut my throat. Now if you will excuse me I got a busy day tomorrow, a jerk with a nasty hangover to meet, and a lot of work to do."

Kakashi looked positively hurt by my jerk comment, I had to tell me I was actually talking about Gato. Why did I tell him I have no clue, just felt like it for some odd reason.

The next morning I sent a shadow clone to train my students, another to keep an eye on our client, and several others to help Tazuna by pretending to be people who wanted to volunteer. I walked down the tree and decided to go towards the Dock. It didn't take me long to see the person I was expecting, Kiriko or maybe I should say Kakashi in disguise.

"So Junior you did make it on time, I got to tell you I love it when my subordinates are punctual." Knowing the things that were said about Kakashi during my Academy days, it was so bad, that I had to laugh, and for effect, I laughed like an absolute raving maniac. The look of shock on the people around us was a nice. It means they actually felt my laugh was genuine.

"Kiriko I am here to do two things, make money or kill a whole lot of people, so how about we meet your boss, or I am going to make the local coffin maker a very happy man." That made everyone give us a lot of personal space, as in they ran for their lives.

I walked in the shipping company and for a second there I thought I saw what I once saw in a nightmare, a pig wearing a suit, wait that was supposed to be Gato, I guess I should ask him how he keeps his curly tail from hurting seating like he was.

"Boss I would like you to meet my new partner, I called him Junior, I think you both will get a long." Gato had to look at me and the way he looked at me made me feel like I needed a long shower. I see animals look at prey in ways that made them look like less of a predator than Gato was looking at me.

"What exactly makes you think your new goon and I will get along that well Kiriko? You haven't even worked for me that long, what makes you think you can tell I will like that punk?"

I looked at him and pretended to be really upset by sending a lot of killer intent towards everyone in the room. "Kukuku, why would I get along with you, good question. Kiriko you told me there would be a chance for me to get paid doing some bloody business. Since it looks like your boss doesn't want to hire me, I guess I should start my blood bath with the people here! I have to waste time, either I make money or someone is going to pay with their lives for my lost time!"

Gato actually began to laugh, I can't make this up, he was laughing like I told the best joke ever, and slapping himself on his bloated gut while he laughed. "You know something Kiriko you are absolutely right, I just met the guy and I already love him like he is my long lost son, a man after my own heart."

"So how about I save the lives of the idiots here and give our friendly neighborhood psychopath some work, that actually pays better than I pay you sorry lot." He took out a folder and looked at me and Kakashi, "I got some loans to collect, and these idiots have used their sob story to get out of paying me. Now with Junior here, I know that these debts will be collected either in cash or blood."

I looked at the list and nodded my head, "Wish there were more, I will take care of these idiots before lunch. Come on Kiriko, we got some business to take care off, you don't mind if I sell these idiots do you, boss?"

Gato again laughed, "No Junior, I don't mind at all, they have outlived their usefulness to me. You can do with them whatever you want and don't worry I will have more work when you get back."

For the next week we either scared the goons of Gato so badly with the fake remains of what they thought were our victims, to flat out make each of them mistrust each other to the point they were killing each other, I guess the suggestions that some of them might want to thin the competition for that big pay off had something to do with it.

Each night I got the memories of my clone and the training that he had my team do, good thing we have so much water nearby, in three days they mastered the water walking exercise and now we're doing the leaf exercise, as their instructor I couldn't be more proud.

The other thing was that someone told Inari where I was sleeping and was waiting for me, the kid actually apologized for being rude and in tears told me he would never again take things for granted and was helping our client around the house, it turns out he went to buy groceries and saw a girl his own age offering herself as a prostitute to pay for her mother's medicine. This served as a rather tough wake up call and realized he was living better than most.

All in all the construction was doing fine and since Junior and Kiriko were doing such a fine job Gato gave us a few days off. I decided to go and help my team train, wouldn't you know it, I saw Kakashi having a tough time getting Sasuke and Sakura to actually do the tree walking exercise.

In truth, I think he was more focused on Sasuke's progress if the way he was looking at them told me anything. I walked over to him and when I did I caught him looking at what my students were doing. "How in the world did you get them that ready to do a Chuunin Chakra control exercise," I told him that it was that hard if they knew how to make at least one Shadow Clone.

That is when he began to hit his head against a nearby tree and kept calling himself stupid every time he did, I was not about to stop him or correct him. It was pretty stupid of him to neglect his students' training like that.


	9. Chapter 9

This is a Naruto Fanfiction Only.

We managed to get the people we were sent to kill to hide, we manage to make a whole lot of fake money, and Gato was none the wiser, I opened the safe and got the ledger I was looking for. The book told me right away that Gato indeed was rich, the man had more than enough money to pay every single of his thugs.

Too bad for them they didn't get to read the note written on the ledger like I did. The note clearly states that once Tazuna and his whole family was dead, displayed publically so that no one dares to question his rule of the Town and Territory, he plans to celebrate and all his thugs would be served a very special liquor, it was poisoned to kill every single one of them.

In the man's own words thugs are cheap to replace, why waste money? paying them? I knew I hated the man before but let's face it, I think the man would actually feel right at home with the Konoha Council.

The days went by and the Bridge was nearly complete, my students were doing a marvelous job. As their instructor, I had to tell you I was very proud of them. I guess it is true, nothing makes an instructor happier than seeing his student excel well beyond even my expectations.

I faked the death of Junior and Kiriko, Kakashi decided to make it look like we came to blows and killed each other. We pretended to have a massive fight at a local bar and a few minutes later a massive explosion was heard in one of Gato's warehouses. We left lots of blood and the shredded remains of what looked to be our clothes.

Too bad for Gato this was the secret place he was storing the poisoned liquor he planned to use, and he couldn't get any more of that quickly enough. Thanks to Zetsu I knew that she was manipulating, too bad that since I pretty much told her not to supply him with anything, she liked the idea. She told me that he owed them too much money anyway.

From that day on I was back training my students and helping Tazuna with his bridge like I said every piece of my soul that I regained held the memories and knowledge of thousands of years. Compare to the things I knew how to build, this bridge was a piece of cake, now that I think about it, a cake might be a nice present for my team after this mission is over.

I looked at them work hard and I looked at Sakura and her team barely working at all. This was pathetic, I mean it, this was really pathetic, who takes a bunch of kids to a mission this Rank and doesn't bother teaching them some basic chakra control.

I heard someone sneeze and I turned around to find Kakashi, "Naruto you could help me train my team you know. You already taught your team a Chuunin level exercise, why don't you teach my team at least some Genin level exercises?"

I got up from where I was seated and looked at him, "And why would I a Jounin Instructor of Iwagakure would teach anything to Genin of Konoha? You do remember that my Kage hates your rotten village, don't you? I wouldn't have worked with you against Gato had it not been for my mission, he is not going to be happy about that. This will probably make me lose any money I earned in this mission."

"Why don't you return to Konoha? You know that there are some people there that do miss you." I flat out told him that since most were ninjas I would meet them like I met him, on a mission or while traveling on the road.

"I hate that blasted village you call your home, I told you Kakashi, they killed both your parents and mine, used me as a scapegoat, and I will have to return to that dump anyway, we both know the next Chuunin Exams are going to happen in that dump. Like I said, you should really train your students better."

I kept looking at my students' train and I couldn't help but feel pride in their achievements. "Kenshin, Kisara, Sango come on, follow me, we need to train your bodies too. Some stamina and strength building exercises would do you lot a lot of good."

They all stood up and began to follow me to the bridge. They each looked at me like I was insane as soon as I told them to help the construction workers build the bridge. "You might not realize this but construction work is hard, requires both strengths to carry the materials and stamina, sure I could have you do something like exercises, but this way you actually also learn something new."

They were not happy about it, but each went to the places I told them to go and help the people I told them to help. "Naruto I don't mean to be disrespectful and I am grateful that you and your students are willing to help me like this, but I can't help to worry about those kids, are you sure they will not get hurt?"

I looked at him, "You should worry about what you will do when you ruin your liver drinking like that, no, my students are ninjas, they are more than capable of doing some basic construction work. Now why don't you show me those blueprints again, I think I came up with a few ideas that you might find interesting."

I walked to the table he was headed to and began to discuss the many little improvements I thought of as we began to look at the blueprints. He might think of me as a person too young to know any of this, but I am not as young as I looked. I got to say that seeing families even as poor and in such horrible conditions, it made me miss my wife an awful lot.

I could not help but to look at the direction of the moon and close my eyes, _'I miss you, my love. Once I am whole, I am busting you out of that thing.'_ Tazuna came up to me and place his hand on my shoulder.

"Why do you look so sad Naruto?" I didn't bother to look at him, "I am just thinking and after seeing so many families with their kids, I miss my wife that is all. She has been and always will be the love of my life, but I can't help but miss her since I can't be with her."

He began to look at me and nod his head, as he stood right next to me, "I know the feeling well, I also miss my wife too. It has been years since I been able to tell anyone this, but in reality, drinking is the only thing that can help me to keep myself from crying. So how long since you lost the light of your soul?"

I couldn't help but laugh as some else called his wife the same thing I did, "My wife is not dead Tazuna, she simply is very far away from me, you could say she is as far away as the moon."

He began to laugh and looked at me with a smile, "Then you have it easier than I do, you either have to find a way to get her to come home or wait till she comes to home by herself, mine is never going to return. How would you deal with that?"

I began to think and that is when it hit me for the first time if I couldn't ever get my beloved wife back, why I would focus on my kids. The only problem is two of my sons are dead, and both betrayed us in ways I wouldn't wish on anyone, and my only daughter is the only ally I have in getting my missing half back, Kaguya, I will have to tell her how precious and important she is to me when I meet her.

"Your wife is dead Tazuna, but in a weird way she is still very much alive, she lives in Tsunami, instead of focusing on what you will never get back, why not focus on what you have around you? Try to quit drinking and be there for the treasure your wife left in your care, your daughter."

The man began to shake and as I looked at him, he began to cry. I guess it was something he just needed to hear from someone else. "I honestly never expected to hear such sentiments from the guy who murdered my master. Had you been so kind to him, well we wouldn't even need to fight, in another life, in another time we could have been friends."

I looked at her and began shaking my head, "And we wouldn't need to fight had you stop hiding in that tree and instead stopped him. You knew he was going to kill us, it's a little matter of self-defense. Tazuna you might want to see how my students are doing, I need to speak with this person for a bit."

She was wearing the armor of a hunter ninja but her mask was scratched something awful, we waited till Tazuna was far away before we turned our attention to each other, "We both know you could have chosen a non-lethal approach, knock him out, gas, a genjutsu, to name a few. I waited long enough for you to get some rest, how about some appreciation and dance with me for a bit."

I knew that this was not going to be a friendly dance between us, no it involved pain, blood loss and eventual death, that sort of dance. Too bad for her I had the powers and knowledge of three of the nine pieces of my soul back, and defeating Zabuza only required the knowledge of one.

Once a long time ago someone told me knowledge is power, and boy oh boy don't I know it. I decided that it was clear she already saw my use of the Flight of the Thunder God, so all this time probably was spent on how to counter that. Thanks to having these three pieces I saw a technique I never saw before.

Even I had to agree that this technique was cruel, vicious and had no mercy in its creation at all. This was not surprising since the technique even had the name of my wife's family, I will say this Kaguya was by far the single most kind member of her entire family, I kid you not, now that I remember her stories, it made me realize that I was rather fortunate to have met her.

You see normally the Okutsuki family is, in fact, a bunch of life devouring, planet killing monsters. The only thing that saved my life it seems was that Kaguya actually loved me, and the fact that when the family figured there were no planets left to devour, they turned on each other, with Kaguya having to be the last surviving member of her family.

Now that I think of it, maybe that is the reason why she wanted to have a big family, oh, you are wondering why am I spending time thinking about this? Well, the fight against the masked wearing lady is pretty boring truth be told, I don't even really need to think about evading or canceling her attacks.

The truth is that the only reason this fight lasted as long as it did, is because I have been spending so much time thinking about my wife who is imprisoned in the moon. I would hope that my students who were watching this learn something from this, but chances are they are still too busy making cement, and carrying construction materials to even notice.

I decided to put an end to this stupid fight once and for all, I slammed my hands together and concentrated on the source of her chakra, I used twenty shadow clones and when one pretended to be Zabuza I decided to switch with that person and before she could even move I punched my fist into her chest grabbing her heart.

" **OKUTSUKI STYLE: REAPING OF THE GIFT!"** The second my technique was used every once of Chakra she had or would ever have become nothing more to me than food. I took every once of Chakra she had and it should go without me saying that Chakra was literately her life.

In a matter of seconds she began to age, wither and turn into a pile of ashes, she was screaming when I punched my hand into her chest, but that didn't last long, I guess that is why nobody noticed what I called my technique.

I knew however that I could not keep the stolen Chakra, so I decided to do something for the people of the town, I turned and used the chakra I stole to purify and revitalize the large river, apparently Gato had contaminated the water for a long time, this would have the effect of promoting life rather than the poison Gato in his stupidity spread through out the river.

The forest around the town began to glow, and the murky waters of the river became clear once again, I could even see fish jumping out of the water. I, however, was feeling a bit dizzy, and it was until Gato and his thugs showed up that my mind finally felt better. Gato was hoping that this one vengeful kunoichi would be enough to wound me and my students so that he and his men would finish us off.

"Took you long enough to get here Gato, before we begin with you screaming that they should kill me, my students, and the bunch of tree huggers from Konoha, don't think I didn't see you Kakashi, shame on you trying to copy one of my wife's techniques, guys I have something to tell you, this idiot is, in fact, rich, but he never intended to pay you, he intended to poison your liquor, liquor he would give you during the celebration for a job well done."

I took out the ledger and let some of them read it, and the note too. To say that those thugs were angry would be an understatement, they were rabid, bloodthirsty and feeling ashamed of having sided with Gato. They each turned around and instead of using their swords like Gato wanted they used them on him. To say Gato looked like a pin cushion with all those blades sticking out of his corpse should tell you how angry these thugs were.

In the end, my team got stronger, learned some basic construction techniques and at the very least can help their families make minor repairs to their homes, not a bad outcome if I do say so myself.

As I met Tsunami I thanked her for letting my students live in her home and everything she provided for them. She promised that as soon as the town was able she would send the money that was owed to our village.

As we walked outside and began to walk towards the new bridge, I heard four people following us, "What do you plan to do Naruto? Where are you going?" To my surprise, Sakura was the one that asked, this banshee and I never could be civil to each other in the Academy, Sasuke was the very definition of being an Emo.

"I plan to return to my village, see if my Kage has more work for me and my team, if not I will train them in some other things, not that it should matter to you. I imagine you and your team will be going to Konoha, tell the old man I am doing fine, and no, my village is Iwagakure, not Konoha, so you can be happy Sakura, you will not have to see me that often."

I walked over to the side of the bridge, as I read the plaque I really wish they had chosen another name, 'In recognition of the heroic acts of a person who changed the lives of Wave, we name this bridge which he helped protect, the Great Naruto Bridge.' My team was laughing as we heard the shouts and grumbling coming from Sasuke and Sakura.

Our trip was productive and we managed to get my students much-needed training, I would say this mission was a success, but somehow I don't think our Kage will be happy that we ended up working with ninja from Konoha. I simply kept on training them on my way back.

In the end, it was time to return home and report the results of our mission to our Tsuchikage, guess this is something I imagine is the same in all the villages. Guess deep down each village is not really that different from each other.


	10. Chapter 10

This is a Naruto Fanfiction Only.

I was beating a target with every bit of anger I had, and I was plenty angry. Our Kage in his infinite wisdom decided to participate in the Chuunin Exams in the worst possible place ever, at least for me, I guess I should not be so hard on him, it was partially my fault. The report of the mission on Wave was actually received by our Kage with a rather positive response.

He even said that since ninja of our two villages worked so well together on a mission like that, then it was high time to do something about the negative emotions and history between our villages, so he sent my team since we worked with a team from Konoha as a means to bury the hatchet as it were.

I hate that stupid village, that has not changed since I left and more than likely it would never change, especially since I could see how Konoha treated a piece of my very soul. I sometimes wish I could talk to my son and ask him if he realized that they would treat me in such a fashion, then again maybe that is why he did it in the first place. I was pretty hard on him when he was growing up.

I finished breaking my twentieth training dummy and decided to walk towards the restaurant we decided we would meet, Sango was having some sweets, Kenshin was drinking a soda and he was drinking that soda with Kisara of all people. Honestly, these guys are going to make my hair turn white even before I manage to get all the pieces of my soul.

"Well Team I got some good news and some bad news, we have been selected to participate in the Chuunin Exams, it seems we made a good impression on some people and they think you three have what is required to take the exams. Now for the bad news, it is in Konoha, and no we can't go it set explosives all over the place and blow it up."

Sango looked at me and then at the two other members of the team, "Sir we had no intention of doing that in the first place, why would you even mention it?" I told her because that is exactly what I wanted to do, I needed to express it or I would continue to have this bile taste in my mouth.

This caused the three of them to begin laughing, it seems they found the way I was behaving funny, my purpose in doing that worked it seems, the last thing I need my students letting the exam stress get to them.

We each talked about what each of them would train during the month between the preliminaries and the actual final tournament, most people think that Konoha does the exams differently each time, but in reality that was not the case, everything was planned and always had the same format.

Thanks to the memories I got from my nine tails piece I knew exactly what to expect. I told them that I would use the shadow clone to make sure that all three would be properly trained in that month, that made Sango smile and both Kisara and Kenshin to look quite worried.

We decided to go that day and the long journey to Konoha began, we killed a few stupid bandit groups and we made a little money on the way, the trip was actually going rather well and that means I could use the time to help my team in what I called last minute training. They mastered the water walking exercise and the kunai spinning exercise by the time we reached Konoha, the gates looked the same as I remembered them. Big, bland and with two idiots glaring at me.

"State your names, Purpose, and Place of Origin for the record," I told him we were the team from Iwagakure here to participate in the Chuunin Exams being conducted in Konoha. I decided to introduce my team, I did not mention my name since it would make no sense, my appearance had changed quite a bit since these two last saw me, having four pieces of my soul back had that effect.

"I am the Jounin Instructor of this team, this is Sango, Kisara and Kenshin, be nice and bow to the nice guards." I looked at them and only Kenshin did not bow to them at all if anything he looked at them with a look of utter anger on their faces.

He looked at me and then at them, "Instructor Uzumaki, why would I respect the fools that treated my Instructor so badly?" Well, there goes my idea of remaining unrecognized during my stay in the village.

One of the guards, one of the guards that used to insult me every day, in fact, came closer to me. "Is that you Naruto? I could hardly recognize you. Why is a failure like doing leading a team and from that village?"

I had to stop both Sango and Kisara from trying to jump the idiot and trying to beat the living daylights out of him, "You know as you clearly said as a failure I was a normal citizen, and since this place obviously loved me as much as I loved living here, well I moved, and in my new village my talents were more appreciated than when I lived here."

"Now if you will excuse me I got to find a place for my team to stay, meet with your Hokage, got a message from the Tsuchikage after all, and still got a meeting with the Proctors of the exams, you know busy. Last but not least, I outrank you, I will forgive you this time, but other Jounin Instructors from other villages might not be as nice as I am."

My team entered the village and Sango asked me why did I use to say Konoha was a horrible place to live, she actually considered the village to be quite nice, they certainly had more trees than they did, the flowers looked nice so why such horrible opinion of this place?

I told my student that I was describing the people that lived here, not the village itself. Turns out that the village had an entire hotel reserved and paid for all the foreign teams to occupy during the Chuunin exams, well that told me there would be more villages participating and they were trying hard to avoid a diplomatic incident.

I told my team to finish reading what I told them to read, a few scrolls on information gathering. I walked over to the Hokage Building and wouldn't you know it, Kakashi was there. He looked like he was waiting for me for some odd reason. "Well would you look at that, I was not expecting to see you here Naruto, what brings you back here? Ready to admit I was right, and return to Konoha?"

I looked at him and I couldn't believe he would actually suggest something so repulsive and in public too, I walked into the building and looked at the secretary, yep, still the same village that I remember hating so much, "Got a message for your Hokage, either open the door, or I will deliver this message over your corpse."

A voice was heard laughing through the intercom as I finished saying that, "No need to threaten my secretary Naruto, the door is open. Come on in, I was actually expecting you."

I walked into the office and stopped three kunai from hitting me with my sword and instead caused them to hit the three idiots that threw them at me. I walked over to the desk and placed a scroll on it. "The Tsuchikage ordered me to deliver this message, something about burying the hatchet between our villages, and this is how you welcome his messenger? I should really report this to my Kage. I should have known not to trust the intentions of Konoha."

I was ready to walk out when he began laughing, "Actually Naruto that was the three proctors testing to see if you were really a Jounin, you got to remember, they still think that you are an academy drop out. I know full well the contents of that scroll. Onoki and I spoke about it in great detail last time we spoke."

"So Kakashi was telling the truth, after all, you really are a Jounin Instructor of Iwa of all places, honestly Naruto why didn't you invite me to come along with you? I have to say I feel quite hurt, you used to love hunting in that forest we both like so much." I turned around and saw that Anko was wearing a trench coat, fishnet vest and shorts, pretty much how I remember her.

"Well Anko, I would but you see then this place would have an excuse to try and kill you, and nobody wants that. Now, where is old Scarface, he still owes me 40 bucks and let's not forget the interest." This made Anko and a guy who seemed to have a severely bad case of asthma to laugh.

"So are you here for the Exams or are you going to live here from now on?" I looked at him and told him once the Exams were over I would gladly return to my home, meaning the one in Iwagakure.

"So you don't ever plan to come back to the village your father loved and died to protect?" I knew Ibiki was here somewhere. How could he actually miss this meeting if he was one of the proctors on the Exams? I knew by the looks of it, Anko and that guy that apparently had trouble breathing were also proctors of the exams.

"Do you think I would come to this place had my Kage not ordered me to come? I will tell you this, I am not going to be merciful if you plan to attack me to try and kill me, get the gravedigger to start digging. You say my father loved and protected this place, well that was his mistake, not mine."

"I told the Tsuchikage that we should conduct our own Chuunin Exams, ignore this place altogether, but he simply would not relent, he told me to bring my students to this place. Just think of it this way, the Fourth Hokage had a tough time defeating the nine tails, well I am much worse than he ever was, he was being controlled by someone placing him under a Genjutsu."

I threw all three kunai at the people that threw them at me, and they caught them, but since I only used a portion of my strength, they had a had time keeping a grip on them.

"Except for a few people, this place was a living hell for me, so don't expect me to shed a single tear if this place gets destroyed, you did notice those ninjas with the music note on their headbands didn't you? This is information from our ANBU they found out Orochimaru is the leader of that village, I don't imagine he likes this place any better than I do."

Hiruzen looked worried after hearing what I told him, "What is exactly keeping you from joining forces with Orochimaru to destroy this place?" I told him my Kage said this was an attempt to bring peace between our two villages since he didn't order me to attack, I was not going to destroy the village, just making sure everyone knew my feelings.

I looked at Anko and smiled at her, "Now that this is taken care off, I need to ask Anko here to come with me to a place with plenty of privacy, don't want to ask her to take her clothes off in front of a whole crowd now do I?"

Anko began to laugh and asked me why would I ask her to take her clothes off, I told her that she had a little something that smelled rotten on her back, I told her I figured taking care of that would show my village was honest in their attempts to establish peace, even if three people of her village tried to kill me.

Hiruzen actually told me that Jiraiya had already tried several times to remove that seal, and he didn't succeed at all. I told him that if he wanted to have someone make sure I didn't harm her, we could do it with some doctors watching while I removed that pesky seal. Anko didn't want to wait and told me to follow her to her place.

As we walked she kept looking at me, almost expecting me to blush, I been married before, and I have the good, bad and embarrassing memories of that marriage, it would take something really spectacular for me to blush. As we walked towards her place, I remembered that she actually lived in that dump of a building I used to live at.

The sight of three ninjas from Suna was not surprising, the smell coming from the one with the big gourd on his back was a different story altogether. The smell was coming from him and for some odd reason the gourd itself, it made me think of one of the pieces I still had to absorb.

As we walked in the apartment, I told her I only needed to have access to her back and a sewing needle. I heated the needle with my chakra, and when she exposed her back I told her to lie down, I even told her it might hurt a little bit. She told me to get on with it or was I enjoying seeing her undressed a little too much.

I did the hand sign and began to feed chakra through my needle, and sure enough I found that pesky thing inside the seal, Orochimaru had placed a piece of his own soul into the seal, the way the seal was made was a possession seal, or to be more specific the seal was a reversed of an exorcism seal.

A crude way to make a possession seal be certain, but thanks to the memories I had regained this seal was no trouble at all, as I fed chakra through the piece of soul I had stabbed and skewered on the needle, the thing began to cry and scream. As soon as it was dead, the seal began to fade and finally it was completely clear.

"See nothing to it, this possession seal is not that difficult to destroy if you know what you are doing. Now we need to talk about why would Orochimaru come here himself, I would imagine you would have a few ideas why?"

Anko told me she actually didn't have the first clue, she was surprised to find out the new village was something he formed, I guess the peace has really dulled the information gathering skills of the village, or the person in charge of gathering said information is too busy peeking at women bathing in a few open baths. My guess would be peeping was more important to him, he is quite the pervert, as far as I have heard.

"My guess he wants the one thing that could really help him get stronger, and faster than he currently can, my guess is he is after the last of the Uchiha. The ability to copy any Jutsu by simply watching the hand signs has always been a coveted and envied ability. The guy with the gourd could also be a bit of trouble, but if it comes to that, I will take care of it."

I turned around so she could get dressed, "You know Naruto, you are in my place, and I am practically naked from the waist up, why aren't you trying to flirt with me? Or at the very least try to get in bed with you? Mind explaining that to me, am I that unattractive to you?"

I heard her putting her clothes back on and decided to make sure to explain I didn't do the typical things a guy my age supposed to do. "Anko, honestly you are one of the most beautiful ladies I ever met, I, however, am not your typical guy, I am weirder than even you think I am, in fact, I am already married. My wife just happens to be very far away from here, and I would never in a million years would I cheat on her, love her too much to even consider it."

She began to laugh and I turned around as she laughed about something, "Well, if it means anything I wish I could tell that woman how lucky she is to have married you. Did you two plan to have any kids? I could be the godmother to them, I know Ibiki would love to be the godfather."

I began shaking my head, "Maybe once I am with her again, I just don't know, we have been apart for a long time, she is as far from as that it feels like she is on the moon. If I remember correctly we did have two sons, and I do have a daughter that is helping me. Now come on, I need to get to the hotel before my team starts to think Konoha has done something to me."


	11. Chapter 11

This is a Naruto Fanfiction Only.

 _A/N: Just so that we are clear, Naruto is the identity Shinju was forced to take after his sons betrayed him and carved the nine tails beats of out him. He is not getting married, because he is married to the mother of his children, and he considers Zetsu his daughter because she was made by his wife._

I was not surprised that out of all the guest suits, my team and I got the worst. Honestly I still think we should done these Exams back in Iwa, this place always has hated me, I don't see that changing any time soon or ever.

I told each of them to be careful and never take anything for granted, to always look at a situation from all angles, to look beneath the underneath as it were, to maintain their confidence and work together, I told them they are the representatives of our village to the world, but to me the most important thing is that they came back alive.

I know that I can't accompany them, and let's face it I do worry about them somewhat. It comes with being their instructor, after spending time with them, how in the world would I be able to say that I don't care. I went to the only restaurant that would ever sell me food and decided to have some ramen.

I know what most would think, ramen for lunch or dinner is fine but breakfast? Let's face it, there are no ramen stands or restaurants that serve ramen in Iwa, so I might as well enjoy it while I can.

I saw a person sitting on the same table I was on, "One Miso Ramen please, and what are you having Orochimaru?" That made the person become a little nervous for some odd reason and looked at me, she pulled down her hood and tried to smile at me, "You must have me mistaken for someone else, I am just having some rice before I have to go to the exams with my team from Suna."

I saw the old chef and for some odd reason he gave me the large bowl, I thanked him and gave him the money for my order, but he refused to take it. Told me it was a delayed birthday gift.

"Well you have the scent of a snake, I imagined there are only there are not many people that smell like that. Must mean your family are snake handlers then, my bad. I have to tell you out of this entire decrepit village this place is the only place I consider decent. The cook and his daughter are polite, kind and considerate to all customers. The food is great, I am going to miss it actually when I go back to my village."

Orochimaru just kept quiet as we both ate our food, I could probably talk to him about gender confusion after having swapped bodies that many times, but then again there was always a rumor that Orochimaru was actually gay. Zetsu told me some pretty funny things about him last night, I still think the entire rivalry with Jiraiya is because he secretly is in love with him.

As I finished my bowl, I placed it on the counter as I was ready to leave, "A wonderful meal, I sure wish I could convince you to move to Iwagakure. I know I don't have much of a chance of getting you and your daughter to do that, so thank you. I left the money in my bowl. Your kindness is the only birthday present I need."

As I walked towards the office of the Hokage a small child bumped into me, I could not help but to scream at the kid telling Konohamaru to watch where he was going, he could get hurt running like that.

I entered the place where all the other Jounin Instructors were meeting and sure enough there were instructors for all the villages present. "Sorry for the wait, did I miss anything?" This made the other instructors glare at me, guess they didn't like me being late, and yet Kakashi is not present, I sincerely doubt that they will glare at him the same way, then again the ones glaring at me were from Konoha.

"No, Naruto have not missed anything, we were having a rather heated discussion about your status actually. Some of the instructors of our village felt that you were not qualified to be considered to enter the exams much less be considered an instructor." That really made me angry, how dare he say I was part of his putrid village.

"I am an instructor of Iwa, my Kage tested me and I am recognized by him, further more I am not a ninja of this village, don't insult me or my village like that again, or I shall inform my kage of this and he doesn't need an excuse to hate this place even more than he already does now does he?"

I looked at him and took out my sword, "As for people doubting I am strong and skilled enough to be an instructor by all means attack me, but I am not as merciful as the Hokage there, you attack me and want me to arrange a meeting with your maker, by all means, I will help you meet the reaper, she is a good friend of mine."

That made a couple of the men see I was not kidding and some of the women blush for some strange reason. "There is no need for that Naruto, sorry for my mistake, it is just I still remember when you were a little boy living in my village, the Iwakage has informed me that you are indeed qualified and no I don't want to cause yet another war because of the hurt egos of a few instructors."

"As I was going to begin to inform you and the rest of the instructors the exams will be divided in three phases, four if there are too many students to attend the final phase, the first phase is a written exam to test the team's ability to gather information, the second will consist of a tracking and retrieval exam, the third and maybe fourth exam will be a tournament between the remaining students to show their abilities."

One of the instructors from the new Sound village decided to put up his hand, "And where will the second phase exam happen Hokage?" He didn't even smile when the Hokage told him the second phase is going to be in the Forest of Death.

"Great, my students alone, in a forest full of poison plants, killer animals, and god knows how many other dangers, this will be lovely, I wonder how many of their parents I will have to meet to inform them of their child untimely death."

I was sick of this already, I wanted to get back to my team and be able to be away these insulting egomaniacs. "The job of a ninja is dangerous, we risk our lives every day for our village and Kage, even more so for those that hope to lead teams, if you students can not handle the risk now as genin, then they have no business attempting to become Chuunin, as for the forest, if they are skilled and trained well, they are perfectly safe, the forest will provide them with everything they need."

One of the Konoha instructors was looking at me, I think I met her before once, Kurenai I believe her name is, "And what would you do if say an instructor or person not participating in the exams tries to harm or kill your team?" Well that was not the sort of question I was expecting from her, but if anything this should make it clear not to mess with me.

I looked at her and the glass near her shattered as the water hit the floor in the form of ice, "Why the only thing I would do is hunt down that person and kill him, then I would hunt down every relative that person has till there is not a single member of his family left." One of the men said I was bluffing, I picked a kunai and threw it at him, barely missing him as it became stuck on a nearby wall, killing a rather poisonous looking spider.

I went to pick take back my kunai and looked at the instructor from Suna, "You really need to be more careful, there are quite a few insects that are poisonous." She looked at me and thanked me while her cheeks were bright red.

"Are we done with this meeting? I have to check if my team has finished what I left them doing." The Hokage told them that it was but wanted me to stay and talk, according to him it has been quite some time since we talked. I have better things to do that chat with him, but to refuse could cause an incident and worse it would be considered rude, a bad example to my students if they hear of it.

I sat down and his secretary brought us both a cup of tea and a tea pot, I swear she is the mother of that good for nothing banshee, not many people actually have pink hair, well that is not true, some people could dye their hair that way, but why? I took the cup and began to smell it.

"I am hurt Naruto, the tea is not poisoned." He took his cup and took a sip, I dumped the contents of my glass in a nearby potted plant, and the plant began to turn brown, till it finally looked as dead as I figured. I looked at the Hokage who was still staring at the plant, "You were saying this tea was not poisoned? If the tea was not poisoned then maybe the cup was, do you honestly think I would trust anyone from this village ever again?"

He threw my cup hard enough to smash it and then he picked up the pieces, he could tell as well as I could the cup was indeed poisoned. "That blasted Danzo, he must still think that killing you will give him the chance to recover the nine tails." I was not surprised I looked at him, Danzo was not someone who I would ever trust, in many times I suspected that the mobs that once tried to do me harm were motivated or began thanks to something he said.

"I will say this once again, there is no nine tails, the Biju are parts of my soul, with the memories and experience I have gained from finding and collecting these pieces, that brat has no chance in catching me in a scheme like this."

I looked at him and began to shake my head, I could think several reasons why he would want to talk with me in private like this, and not many that I would approve of. "So there is no chance for me to get you to return to the village is there?"

I looked at him and looked at the three man hiding behind the fake wall to my right, "You think I would gladly return to the place that has wanted me dead every day since I was born? You should consider this a favor, your village wanted me gone so I granted them that part of their wish, and once I regain the missing pieces of my soul, I will grant them the last part, the Naruto you knew will be no more."

Hiruzen actually looked worried when he heard me, maybe he still thinks he can use me or somewhere deep down he actually cares, a little too little, and a little too late. "Now I have been given permission to defend myself so your ANBU should not be wasted in following me, instead they should be more concerned with Orochimaru, I think I saw him at Ichiraku a couple of hours ago."

"I sincerely don't think he came back to the village with good intentions, but then again who can blame him, if the Chuunin Exams were not happening here, I would not be anywhere near this place. Like I said I need to check on the work I left my students to do, and word to the not so wise, if you attack me like I know you want to, I will kill you in the most horrific manner possible, and yes I do mean you Jackal."

I began to walk out and saw the secretary, she looked rather shocked that I was not dead, "Your ploy was not a terrible one Haruno, but then again, you are a few hundred years too early to get the best of me, be sure to train that daughter of yours, unless you want to hold a funeral for her, take this advice in thanks for the tea."

I was ready to get out when she finally regained her composure, I could feel her standing by the door, " **YOU SHOULD BE DEAD! YOU KILLED OUR MOST BELOVED HOKAGE, BETRAYED HIS VILLAGE, AND STILL YOU DARE TO GO ON LIVING! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST DIE ALREADY!"**

I turned around after I opened the door, and I looked at the pitiful woman that screamed at me, "Sorry, but I don't do requests." I walked out of the place and headed towards the Inn where my team was, I hope they finished the assignment I left them.

As I returned I saw that they indeed finished making the seal belts I had left them, I told them to prepare emergency supplies and placed one in each seal on the belt, to place them so they would be useful on a moments notice. "Instructor I gather everything went well with the meeting?"

I looked at my student and smiled, "Nothing worth mentioning, dispel your shadow clones and follow me, I am going to take you three to eat at the only decent place in this entire village, you three deserve a reward for all your hard work, unless there is something you need to tell me."

They had nothing to say and I didn't want to keep my students hungry, they will need all their strength for what they are about to face, I also plan to leave a shadow clone in the form of a bead on each of their head bands. This place may be where the Chuunin Exams are happening, but that doesn't mean I trust them. It would be smart of them to finish off my students to weaken my village, so I will not leave them unprotected.

I know I should have faith in the abilities of Kenshi, Kirara and Sango, they are my hard working students, and they will make me proud of their abilities, except that we are in a nest of vipers, alright that was an insult, to vipers that is, I am not kidding vipers are nicer than the people in the village we were at.

"I keep telling you to have constant vigilance this place is enemy territory, oh, I know you are going to say we are not at war with this village, and you would be correct, except don't count on these people of being fair or that they would not do anything immoral to make sure you three fail, our village hates this place, don't think they don't feel the same way about our village."

Sango looked at me with this worried look on her face, "And then why are we even here? I mean isn't the practice of hosting these Exams on other villages supposed to be to help breed feelings of cooperation and feelings of good will towards each other?"

I looked at them and could not help but to shake my head as I heard what she said, "Never take anything for granted, always, and I mean always look the underneath of the underneath, they might want you to feel safe and secure, so that you drop your guard and stab you in the back when you least expect it. I have complete faith in your abilities and skills, just don't ask me to feel the same about these Konoha ninja, cause the only thing I am sure of is, they want me dead."


	12. Chapter 12

This is a Naruto Fanfiction Only.

Well as I woke up I found myself in a rather strange situation. I was tied up and some idiot was sharpening a pair of butcher hatchets. I got to say Danzo sure took his sweet time, too bad for him and the idiots that were working with him. No sunlight must mean I am underground, so they took me from my bed in the middle of the night and I am in the fabled area where he trains his little cult. His precious brainwashed Root ANBU.

"So you are awake, brat, I don't care what that idiot thinks. Anyone can be bought for the right price, that includes the ANBU that the fool set up to protect you. I will get the property of my village back, you can lie to that fool, but I know better than to believe the lies of an idiot like you."

I flexed my muscles and I smiled at him, "I hope for your sake that my students are safe, because if you did anything to them, you will wish you died." He laughed and said he had no interest in a bunch of stupid genins that came from one of the places that he planned to attack anyways, he said they were fine, but me that was another story.

"So my students are safe, good. I see no reason to hold back then." I caused the ropes to break into pieces, the metal of the hatchets to melt, and the people around me to die as their blood froze from my killer intent, one that I had no need to hold back on.

I got up from where I was tied and looked at Danzo and he had a scared look on his face. "This impossible, impossible, you are nothing more than a lying punk, how can you do this, we drugged you, you should not be able to walk for days or ever." I looked at him and smiled, as I came closer his little cult tried to protect him, his little ANBU troops were next to nothing to me.

I killed them rather easily, "I am a punk you say, well this goes to show even when you tell people the truth they are so used to lying that they never believe other people can tell the truth, Danzo, I am the father of the man that you idiots call the sage of the six paths, and I am also your executioner."

Too bad the place was underground, I would have loved it if the people in the village could hear the screams Danzo was making as I took my time killing him. Because I certainly took my time in making him feel like he was in hell before he actually got to the real place, but then again he had planned to do the same thing to me, so I don't feel that guilty about it.

As I walked outside the room, many of this followers came in running to find out what happened to their illustrious leader, to say that they found him in pieces must have been a shock, to have been killed by his own weapon even more so, as I walked towards the exit the idiots tried to get revenge for the murder of their leader.

I was not in a good mood, I killed one Root ANBU after another, I didn't stop going down the passage towards the exit, walking and killing, killing and walking, just let the corpses fall where they died, I had no time to deal with cleaning up this garbage, I had to get to my team and hear how they were doing. The welfare of my students was the only thing on my mind.

As I finally made it out of the passage I came to find myself outside the village walls, in a rather dense forest that was by the looks of it near the Hokage Monument. I was going to need a bath and new clothes, there is no way I will be able to clean my clothes after they got caked by so much blood.

I ran towards the entrance and that is when two Chuunin guards stopped me. "Name, Village of Origin and Purpose." Are these guys suicidal or just plain stupid? "Naruto, Iwagakure, Going to continue to aid my students in their exams, now will you move, I got things to do, change my clothes, and find my team."

One of them looked at my clothes, it must be because I mentioned my clothes to them, "Where have you been?" As they opened the gate I didn't bother looking at him and simply told him taking care of the garbage.

I was walking towards the hotel my team was staying at when someone bumped into me, it was the same person again, will this kid ever learn that he needs to think before he does things? "Konohamaru, you need to learn some manners, you are the grandson of your Hokage, you need to think what your actions say about you and him, when you bump into someone you must apologize, not to do so is rude."

I didn't even intend to lecture him, but something about this behavior made me remember my kids when they were little, they thought the world was their playground like he does, I probably said the same thing to them. My sons were so innocent once, so full of kidneys and they looked like they could not hurt an ant, guess I was wrong in the end.

"Like I care, I am the grandson of the third Hokage, I can do whatever I want and nobody can tell me what to do. There is nothing I can't get away with, and I will not even get a slap on my wrist for it, I stole, I peeked at women bathing, I lied, I made other do my homework or threaten shops to get the things I want, you are giving me a lecture for just bumping into you. Are you a complete fool?"

I looked at him and glared at him, "You know something you are right, I am a bit foolish, to think that you would be better than what I come to expect from the people in this village, but remember my words Konohamaru, everything bad we do comes back to make us pay, it is just a matter of time."

He really looked upset when I said that, "Just who the hell do you think you are! What makes you think you know any better than me! You are nothing, no, less than nothing compared to me. I will talk to my grandfather and I will get him to punish you for daring to talk to me like that."

I looked at him and realize my mistake, this kid is no better than Sasuke, or should I say he is even worse, "I don't think you need to tell him anything, he heard you loud and clear. Who am I? I am the father of the sage of the six paths. I really wish I could talk to your father about how much his son needs discipline, if this was anywhere else, I would put you on my knee and give you an attitude readjustment."

I didn't intend to let out so much killer intent, and I sure didn't intend to scare the brat, but the things he said made me so angry I could no longer contain it. He looked like he was ready to piss his pants, I actually think he did something much worse, good thing he was wearing brown pants.

"So off you go brat, what where you are going, or the next person you bump into might not be as friendly and forgiving as I am." He took off like he saw the grim reaper, and I went on my way to the hotel, I hope my students are doing alright.

As I made it back to the room I was not greeted in such a gentle manner, they all rushed me and tackled me to the floor, apparently they were worried about me, they were all crying and giving me a group hug it seems, I don't remember if I ever experienced something like that before.

"Guys, it's alright, I am not that easy to finish off, so come on. You three have to tell me how things went on the written exam?" That was when they suddenly turned pale and looked at me with this rather scared look on their faces. Guess this means they actually passed, knowing who the proctor of that exam was meant they had a hard time.

"So let me get this straight, you three passed because you three got so nervous that you actually didn't answer any of the questions? You just answered the last one that you would do your duty and that is it? Did you pass, just like that? Boy Ibiki sure has gone soft since last I knew him."

Sango began to laugh and said that the lady wearing the trench coat pretty much said the same thing, that the next phase was going to happen in a gated forest. "You wouldn't know what she means by gated forest would you, instructor?"

I took a deep breath to calm myself, "Oh, you mean the forest of death? Sure I know the place, it is actually a rather wonderful place, a playground, hotel, and a grocery store all in one. If I ever missed anything about this dump of a village it is the forest, I loved spending time there growing up. Anything you need or want you can find in that forest if you are smart and figure where to look."

That made my students both relax and begin laughing, "Why would they call the place something like the forest of death if it is such a wonderful place?" I told them simply because the place was wonderful didn't mean it was not dangerous to those that were foolish or weak. It is such a wonderful place that many dangerous beasts call the forest their home, so of course, they will defend it.

"We ninjas feel the same way about our village why should it be any different for them?" This made my students go quite for a little bit, well except Kisara who was actually looking at me with apparently new found respect.

"Instructor what will you do while we are in the forest?" I told them that I was going into the forest too, no reason that I couldn't visit a few childhood friends now is there? I also plan to do a little hunting for something very precious for me, or should I say, someone, since he carries a piece of me inside himself but doesn't even know I already caught the scent of that piece.

I took my students out to the only place I called decent in the entire village, the best restaurant there is, Ichiraku, the other places could burn till there was nothing but ashes, but if Ichiraku closed down forever, why, I might actually break down in tears.

As we ordered our food my students kept asking me about my childhood, so I decided that they should tell me each a story for every story they asked of me, I had no idea that Sango loved to sew clothes, or that Kenshin loved to knit, Kisara's passion for cooking was also something I never realized.

It is partially my fault it seems, I always do the cooking when out in the field, we went to a training field to check on their progress in the chakra control exercises I always asked them to do. For kicks, I picked Training Field Number Seven. I know that one has a monument my students might find interesting.

As I checked Kenshin still needs a little work on the leaf exercise, Sango pretty much was ready to move to the kunai spinning exercise, and Kisara was ready to move to another elemental control exercise, I swear she puts most Uchiha to shame with how good she is with fire control.

I threw a kunai at a tree branch and went back to look at my students. "Was that really necessary Naruto?" I saw next a very upset Kakashi holding his book which apparently had a hole in it, I guess my kunai punctured his book when he was taking it out.

"I would like some privacy when training my team, I don't spy on yours now do I? I also never hid my absolute hate for that book. To call that thing literature is an insult to properly written books everywhere. I mean come on, the book only has stories with the main character, having hordes of women just throw themselves at him for sex or other forms of gratification, to put it simply it is smut."

That made him angry if the glare I was getting from him was any indication, "It is a book series dealing with the difficulties of starting and maintain a relationship. It is a guide, a holy book that has saved many marriages across the Elemental Nations. So do you have any other insults to this wonderful book? I like to get them out of the way as it were."

I looked at the book and then at him, "Never mind that the author failed at starting a relationship with the only woman he ever was interested in, spends more time in whore houses than some people spend in restaurants, is a perpetual drunk, and according to himself is a super pervert. Take it from me, marriage is never easy to maintain or ever as simple as that book makes it out to be, take it from a guy who was married to the same woman for over fifty years."

That made him spit in my general direction, and walk towards me, "And where is your wife? You are not even twenty years old as far as I know, and you spent fifty years married, that is an absolute lie, so tell Naruto where is your wife? You never even had a girlfriend you liar!"

I took a deep breath and looked up in the sky for a second, I could see a little bit of the moon up there. I looked at Kakashi and smiled, "I don't say we are currently together, we got separated against our will, but she is always looking out for me, ever seen the moon? That is where my wife is, and I am willing to bet you should be happy she is there, cause she would have kicked your teeth in for that last comment alone."

I looked at my class and for some reason, Kenshin was the only one with a confused look on his face, "Instructor why pick this field?" I forgot to tell my students why this field was so special, guess since they showed me they are making good progress with the exercises I might reward them for doing so well.

"Well excuse me Kakashi, but I need to show my students something really interesting," I told them to follow me and wouldn't you know it Kakashi followed me too. I stood at the large rock and told my class to stop.

I pointed at the rock, it was carved with many names and it was a very important monument for Konoha, "This class is the monument to all the people who died in the defense of this village, yes, every single name carved on this rock is a person who died to protect this village be it in war or in tragedy, these my students are the heroes of this village, and to always remember them they made this monument."

I decided to point a few names, "Sakumo Hakate is the father of the man with us, and how can I forget Kushina Uzumaki, the woman who helped me be able to be here with you, my precious students, and last but not least my father Minato Namikaze, otherwise known as the Fourth Hokage."

That made my students look at me with a surprised look on their faces, "And he is also the person whose last order was used by this village as toilet paper for years after he died defending this very village. They even went further and tried to kill me, his son. To this day they never apologized or even thought they did anything wrong, I can imagine he is rolling in his grave from the rage he must be feeling if he could."

My three students looked at me with a look that told me they understood why this place was so important to me. "That is also my lesson for you today, heroes are people who look beyond themselves for the greater good of all, and sometimes the people they help do not appreciate it, do good for the sake of doing something good, never because you expect them to be grateful or for a reward."

"Always remember what I taught you during our D rank missions, a person who abandons a mission is scum, but a person who abandons his team is worse than scum. We will always stand for each other, and I will always think for ways to help you, for you see, even when you pass, and become Chuunin, and are no longer under my care, you will always be my precious students, and you can come to me for help, always."


	13. Chapter 13

This is a Naruto Fanfiction Only.

I am not even worried about the first part of the exams if anything I think it will be a little easy for them since I pretty much-drilled information into them every chance I got. I also know they can read between the lines and are pretty good at information gathering.

I decided to go towards the Forest of death and wait for them. This place sure brings back memories, and out of the entire village, this forest is one of the few places where those memories are pleasant. I used to love hunting in this forest, my personal grocery store. I went and killed a boar, skinned it and cooked it with some herbs with a fire Jutsu.

I was eating some of my freshly cooked boar when Anko finally showed up. She walked near me and without even asking took a piece of the boar and began eating it. "You really did a number with those students of yours. I swear they got through that phase like it was a walk in a park. What exactly did you do to those kids that not even Ibiki could scare them?"

I didn't bother looking at her, I told her I did my job, I taught them exactly what they needed to know and prepared them for the worse, "Instead of worrying about my students, shouldn't you be getting ready to meet Orochimaru? You know he is in town, last but not least why don't you tell your friends that are in your coat to come out and eat some of this meat? They sound like they could use a meal."

She looked at me and began to move her arms and indeed six snakes came slithering out of her coat, they each began to eat. "How did you know I had them with me?" I told her that their clan is an old friend of mine. I looked at one that was eating and she was really enjoying her meal.

"I hope Manda is doing alright, it has been centuries since last I met him." She looked at me and nodded her head. "Good, then chances are I will get to meet my old friend." Anko looked at me with a bit of a smile and she continued to eat her food till we were rudely interrupted by a horde of students taking the exam running to the gated fence where we were.

"Ibiki is going soft in his old age, how many of them passed? A better question is did he fail any of them?" Anko began to laugh as she heard me say that, "I told him the same thing myself, you got yourself to blame, your students simply would not back out of the last question and because they did, none of the other students backed out either."

Kenshin, his sister, and Sango were all waiving at me as soon as they arrived, I can't believe they are treating this exam like it is a field trip, I will have to have a serious talk with them during the next phase. My target was present also, the one they call Gaara, I could practically feel the piece of my soul that he had sealed inside.

"Alright boys and girls welcome to the infamous Forest of death, this next part is simple, we got a simple tracking and retrieval mission. Two scrolls, one called the earth scroll, the other heaven scroll, each team gets one, and have to find a team that has the other scroll. Only teams that have both and reach the building in the middle of the forest pass this part of the exams."

"Now before you go and take a scroll I need you all to sign a waiver form, those that don't sign pretty much fail and can try again next year. Why the waiver? It is simple, from here on out you may use any means to obtain the scroll from other teams, that includes killing. The waiver is a standard liability waiver. As soon as you sign the form and hand it over to me, you can pick a scroll from the barrel next to me, any questions?"

I looked at Sakura and I knew she would have questions, "What are we going to do about food and shelter?" Sure enough, she had to ask the obvious question. Why am I not surprised that she thinks the village will provide her with her basic necessities?

"If you bother to think and look beside me, you will notice there is a nicely roasted boar, this place has everything you need, food, shelter, even bathrooms if you know where to look. Thanks for the meal Naruto, that was very sweet of you, my friends sure enjoyed their meal."

I could not help but to smile, "Don't mention it, I grew up eating things from this forest, so trust me, if anything, my students will be fine here. I don't know about the rest of these kids, but then again they are not my responsibility. Before I forget, see you soon Shukaku." A person threw a Kunai my way and sure it would hit if I was a naive Genin, but I am not.

I caught the kunai by the handle and began to smell it, I walked over to the person I knew was Orochimaru and began to twirl the kunai. "Is this yours? I guess your hand slipped, these things have a tendency to get lost, you should really be more careful."

She looked at me, "Kukuku, no, I didn't lose it, I threw it so that you would catch it, it is a gift after all. It will make it easier for me to find you later, then again I am sure I will see you soon enough handsome, can't wait for us to have a really good old time in that forest."

Anko was now glaring at her and she was glaring at Anko, did Anko forget I am married? I know it is written in the bingo book. She just took the scroll and went back to her team, she was standing close enough, why did Anko not realize it was Orochimaru? I mean for crying out loud, her snake friends were reacting to her.

One by one they each took a scroll, and each went into the forest. As soon as we were alone she looked at me and boy did she look angry, "So the one that was flirting with you is Orochimaru, I never thought I would agree with Jiraiya but I guess after changing bodies so much my old mentor can't remember he is actually a guy."

"Anko, please understand, I am happily married. My beloved wife just happens to be very far away from me due to circumstances beyond our control. Now don't worry I will do my best to keep Sasuke, Sakura and Sai safe, and if I can I will give your old mentor a beating to slow him down for you."

She immediately began to laugh and smile like I said something really to her liking. Honestly, I am too old for this, I guess I never noticed how fast women can have a change in mood. As I walked up a tree trunk I began to run towards where I sense Shukaku was. One more piece of my soul, I hope that with this I can be strong enough to even try a spiritual projection.

If I can do the spiritual projection I might be able to get my consciousness to reach my beloved on the moon, then again I hope she recognizes me, I mean after losing so much power I am bound to look different than what she remembers what I once looked like.

Damn that Shukaku or should I say damn that Gaara, he is doing everything he can to avoid me. I immediately saw Manda's daughter chasing after Sai, I jumped down and immediately without even saying a word picked him up and we were out of reach of the snake that was chasing him down.

"Sai, no time for gratitude or explanations, we need to move now, if I know who that snake was, Sasuke and Sakura are in deep trouble." He had this look of concern on his face as he nodded and we took off, I immediately used the trees to sense where they were and sure enough there was Manda well I at least get to meet an old friend.

I jumped as fast as I could and when Manda was about to touch Sasuke I jumped in between them holding Manda back, "Hey, you are not hurt are you kid, you scaredy cat." He just looked at me and he had this look of utter shock when he looked at my face. I guess I tapped into a little too much power to increase my speed to be able to catch up to them.

"Manda, sorry to tell you but you got this disgusting growth on your head. I am sorry but I simply don't know of any cream that can deal with something as nasty as that, might as well pop it. You actually listened to my advice about the mint mouthwash, nice."

Manda pulled back and Orochimaru looked absolutely pale from the sheer rage, wait, he was always that pale. " **Who do you think you are to talk to me in such a casual tone!** " I looked at him and when he saw my face and directly into my eyes I could see that somewhere in his mind he still remembered me.

"Who am I? I am the infernal flame that dances on the graves of my enemies, you know that. Your daughter might be a little upset that I interrupted her dinner, but I would never think you would forget me, Manda, you were such a cute little snake when we met last, you even lived in our garden, I and my wife used to take care of you, did you forget me already?"

Orochimaru finally got the nerve to talk, "Look, I don't try to interrupt your schemes now do I? Just let me have that Uchiha brat, and you can even have the scroll I have, your team more than likely will need it. How about it? You let me do what I need to do, and I help you, it's called professional courtesy. This might even let me destroy the village we both hate so much."

Well, that put me in a right pickle, on the one side I wanted this stupid village burned to the ground, on the other Sasuke is one of my descendants, decisions, decisions. I know I will never be able to have this opportunity again, but I can't ignore my own teachings can I?

I looked at Orochimaru who finally took off the face he was wearing and he looked more like a man, "Sorry about this Orochimaru, but this so-called brat is my descendant, I can't tell how many generations but he is a child of my child, so as much as I would love to see this village burned to the ground, I can't let you harm him."

Good thing the kid fainted as soon as he looked at me, don't need him knowing who I really am. A few hand signs and Manda knew I meant I was serious as the air turned freezing cold, and my hands turned blood red. Manda left as two black thunderbolts came down from the sky and struck him in the middle of his chest.

He was breathing hard but still alive, I walked over to him and made several vines come out of the ground and wrapped themselves around Orochimaru, he was not going to go anywhere, those vines are better than any chains and the more a person struggles the more they weigh a person down.

I took something from my pocket and opened it, but Sakura took it from me. "You are not going to poison him you liar! I will not let you harm my Sasuke!" Is she blind or simply that naive? I just captured one of the most wanted criminals that her own village wanted, saved her and Sasuke from being somebody's lunch and this is the gratitude she shows me.

Honestly, I should not be that surprised, it is not like I expect her to be that grateful, I mean this village has tons of people who still wish I was dead, and some that want to be the one to kill me. I guess this really should make relax since it also means not much has changed in the village.

I decided to open a path for her and Sasuke to reach the building in the middle of the jungle. Fifteen shadow clones made sure they got there safe, and one informed Anko where to find the still tied up Orochimaru, the only way I could think of that he might free himself is to kill the body he is currently possessing. This would disrupt his plans, so I don't think he would ever even consider doing that.

In truth I expect him to use a contact within the village council to help him escape, and possibly give him a chance to pretend to be a visiting Kage or dignitary so that he could be at arm's reach of the Hokage. Killing the Hokage would make destroying the village easier, I know that, but the Kage of this village does not deserve that.

As I made it to the building where they were supposed to deliver the scrolls, I walked up the walls and sat on the roof. I wanted a good vantage point to find my team and that is when I saw that indeed my team were doing a marvelous job against a group of sound ninja, the new village is hidden in sound apparently sent a team to be promoted.

I could not help but to feel proud as they managed to both take the scroll they needed, beat them up so severely that the animals around them I think actually felt pity for the ones my students beat up and they left them tied up hanging by their feet from rather large tree branches.

I think that is how you are supposed to protect your camping provisions when you go camping where bears are known to be in the area. I could tell they were screaming at my team, and I almost could hear what they were screaming, well with a mouth as foul as that it is no wonder no animal wanted to eat them.

They finally made it to the tower and sure enough, the scrolls themselves formed a reverse summoning seal, which apparently was set to summon their teacher, you can imagine my surprise when I was one minute sitting on the roof and the next I was standing in front of my students.


End file.
